Quality Professional Educators

Recently, a Springfield TV station reported that the Missouri State Teachers Association is asking for a higher base pay for teachers. In the report, one teacher is quoted, "If we want quality professional educators, and we want to be competitive with other states even, we need to raise that base pay, but we need to look at [the] entire [salary] schedule to keep quality teachers as well," second year Pleasant Hope teacher Cara Clark said.

I agree, teachers should be paid more. But I think the teacher quoted above made several interesting points. First, she used the phrase "quality professional educators." Second, she referenced the "salary schedule" -- implying that the base pay is not the only salary level that needs to be raised or at least evaluated.

To ensure that our educators are quality professionals I think they should be treated as such. Why not implement some of the performance measures that other professionals use? Key quality indicators, performance evaluations, accountability, etc., etc. Doesn't it make more sense to reward excellence rather than making across the board pay increases? I'm not suggesting teaching on commission, but I am suggesting paying teachers who have met certain benchmarks more than teachers who do not meet them. It's really very simple and there are a lot of models out there for replication.

As for the entire "salary schedule" this too needs to be addressed. Excellence should continue to be rewarded throughout a teacher's career more than the number of years a teacher has been in the classroom. Quality over quantity. Besides, if we continue to raise the base pay with no consideration for performance we will have some small school districts that have to let teachers go in order to meet the new pay requirements. This is echoed by the Pleasant Hope superintendent also quoted in the report. My fear is that if that happens, it won't be the highest quality teachers that keep their jobs, but those who have been there the longest.