Boone County Follies: More Pay for Teachers, Not Jeff City

submitted by:MadMary

I was pleased to hear from Mike Wood of the Missouri State Teachers Association that someone is trying to improve teacher pay, rather than stagnating past 44th in the nation. For the life of me, I cannot understand our board decisions sometimes - while we fight to keep our salary schedules competitive, our district seems more concerned about suing the state from incidental or reserve funds. If our district has $81,000 laying around to pay Jefferson City lawyers, that's equal to almost three teachers annual salaries here in district! It's embarrassing when our community loses our trust to provide quality education such that I have to endure a scolding by Hank Waters.

One More Time: Herschend Re-Appointed to State Board of Education

During Peter Herschend’s interview in the Springfield News-Leader last week, there was mention that he wants the quality of educational professionals to increase. Since Missouri is one of only 20 states that allows teachers to choose which education associations they join, perhaps we are ripe for some of the most innovative pay models in the country.

How Will Missouri TAP More Teacher Talent?

Submitted by: Woody

As the Joplin Globe reported about Oklahoma, many states are trying to improve teacher pay for better performance with student learning. One model worth consideration here in Missouri is the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) started in 1999 by the Milken Family Foundation. The TAP program provides bonuses to teachers who increase students’ academic growth and who demonstrate their skills through classroom evaluations that are conducted four to six times a year by multiple evaluators (trained and certified by TAP). While all reviews related to performance have their quirks, somehow the rest of the working world seems to get by with regular feedback tied to better pay. Teacher Magazine has a great read about the quest for better teacher pay.