LAE urges state to adopt plans that support students and the entire education community.
BATON ROUGE- The announcement by the US Department of Education listing Louisiana as one of the finalist for Race to the Top (R2T) grants may bring badly needed funding to the state. However, the Louisiana Association of Educators believes this announcement may also bring the state one step closer to implementing unproven strategies that will ultimately fail children, educators, and our public schools.
Joyce Haynes, the President of LAE, believes the state's R2T application fails to hit the mark and will not improve student achievement and teacher quality. "One area of the state's application that we believe is particularly harmful is using student test scores to determine teacher compensation," said Haynes. "There is little or no research that actually supports the value of linking the two."
Haynes adds this approach also provides a stumbling block to serious negotiations around an effective R2T application that can be supported by the entire education community.
"LAE believes that the success of all of our students can only be obtained when all stake holders, not just public school employees, are brought to the table and held accountable for improving student achievement and teacher quality."
While the LAE cannot support the initiatives included in the original R2T application, Haynes states the Association remains committed to fighting for education reforms that focus on creating and nurturing "great teachers and leaders"-a critical component to improving student achievement.
She adds that the LAE will continue to work with the Louisiana Department of Education and other stakeholders to insure that the revised version of the state's application will focus on proven strategies and programs that improve student achievement and teacher quality.
"We fight for the success of all students," said Haynes. "All students deserve great schools-with great teachers and leaders working collaboratively and focused on the needs of children. Public education will improve, and our state will progress, but only when the entire education community works together and the professionalism of all educators is affirmed."
Friday, March 5, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
LAE blasts Pastorek for NBCT stipend cuts
LAE questions commitment to reform with move that delivers blow to state’s most accomplished teachers
BATON ROUGE—On one hand State Superintendent Paul Pastorek promotes so-called education reform with policies and practices deemed non-impactful or even detrimental to student achievement via Louisiana’s very problematic Race to the Top application. Yet on the other hand he questions the value of what research and the education community embrace as one of the profession’s most effective strategies for improving student achievement—the National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT). Questioning the contradiction, the Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE) today blasted State Superintendent Paul Pastorek for moving to cut the annual $5,000 stipend to NBCTs.
The following statement can be attributed to LAE President Joyce Haynes:
“Time after time we educators ask ourselves—and each other, ‘does he not get it?’” said LAE President Joyce Haynes. “Somehow money can be found to increase compensation so that non-certified educator programs like Teach for America and for-profit charters can flourish and grow. And yet Supt. Pastorek and Gov. Jindal continue an anti-public education agenda—one that starves and cripples public education and public educators. Local reward checks for improved test scores? Gone. Preparation and readiness of students for kindergarten? Gone. Funding for mentoring and assessment of teachers new to the profession? Gone.
“And the list goes on and on.
“National Board Certification has been a goal of the state for some time now and it’s a source of pride to say Louisiana currently has 1,532 NBCTs. These men and women worked countless hours to complete the rigorous process and gain recognition through a plethora of work. Research has shown and educators know that it truly adds value to teaching and epitomizes the importance of continuing education on the part of teachers.
“Louisiana NBCTs have been promised this stipend, they’ve earned this stipend, and they deserve this stipend.”
BATON ROUGE—On one hand State Superintendent Paul Pastorek promotes so-called education reform with policies and practices deemed non-impactful or even detrimental to student achievement via Louisiana’s very problematic Race to the Top application. Yet on the other hand he questions the value of what research and the education community embrace as one of the profession’s most effective strategies for improving student achievement—the National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT). Questioning the contradiction, the Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE) today blasted State Superintendent Paul Pastorek for moving to cut the annual $5,000 stipend to NBCTs.
The following statement can be attributed to LAE President Joyce Haynes:
“Time after time we educators ask ourselves—and each other, ‘does he not get it?’” said LAE President Joyce Haynes. “Somehow money can be found to increase compensation so that non-certified educator programs like Teach for America and for-profit charters can flourish and grow. And yet Supt. Pastorek and Gov. Jindal continue an anti-public education agenda—one that starves and cripples public education and public educators. Local reward checks for improved test scores? Gone. Preparation and readiness of students for kindergarten? Gone. Funding for mentoring and assessment of teachers new to the profession? Gone.
“And the list goes on and on.
“National Board Certification has been a goal of the state for some time now and it’s a source of pride to say Louisiana currently has 1,532 NBCTs. These men and women worked countless hours to complete the rigorous process and gain recognition through a plethora of work. Research has shown and educators know that it truly adds value to teaching and epitomizes the importance of continuing education on the part of teachers.
“Louisiana NBCTs have been promised this stipend, they’ve earned this stipend, and they deserve this stipend.”
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
What kind of pension plan is better for Louisiana educators?
Defined benefit vs. defined contribution
Just before the end of the 2009 Louisiana legislative session, a joint house and senate retirement committee was formed under committee resolution HCSR 1. What is the joint committees’ charge? “Study the issue of converting state retirement plans for future employees from a defined-benefit pension plan to a defined contribution plan.”
The defined benefit pension plan is what public school employees in Louisiana have through the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL). It provides a formula, currently around 2.5% times the average of your highest three years salary times the number of years you worked, to determine your retirement annuity. A person who works 30 years will retire with a pension of about 70% of salary.
TRSL receives retirement contributions from employees, the state and school districts. It hires well paid experts to manage its investment portfolio to not only grow the fund, but also to provide the revenue necessary for monthly annuity checks. When a slump occurs in the stock market, like the one most recently in 2008-2009, the system is still receiving funds from employees, the state and school districts and has ample money to continue paying benefits until the market rebounds, as has happened in the past and is currently happening now.
Since most public school employees do not have access to Social Security and do not get automatic cost-of-living adjustments, the defined benefit plan provides them the security of a guaranteed retirement.
The defined contribution plan, which is used by many private businesses, to supplement the defined benefit Social Security income private employees will also receive, provides that during an employee’s working career he/she will contribute a percentage of salary and the employer will contribute a percentage of salary to a tax deferred retirement account.
At retirement the employer, has no further obligation to the employee. The employee has a “nest-egg” accrued over the years and as a retiree has to assume the total responsibility of managing or paying someone to manage that account for the rest of his/her life.
The last decade is a classic example of the vagaries of the stock market. People with defined contribution accounts, 401(k), etc. did very well during the mid- and late 1990s when the stock market was yielding double-digit returns almost every year. When the most recent slump hit, many of those 401(k) accounts began to look more like 201(k) accounts. Many people lost 30%, 40% and even 50% of their retirement savings in a just a few years.
The core issues in the defined benefit vs. defined contribution discussion are deciding what the primary purpose of a retirement system is and who is best qualified to fulfill that purpose. LAE feels a retirement system ought to reward the career educational employees who have served this state for 25, 30 or 40 years (yes, there are still people working in our schools for 40 and more years). Since this is the only retirement fund available to most educators LAE feels the investment experts at TRSL can garner a better return on funds in the stock market than each of the 88,000 employees and 62,000 retirees and beneficiaries could do individually.
LAE will continue to support the defined benefit system for educational retirees in Louisiana. Rather than change a system that has worked well for the last 70 years, LAE will be working with the Legislature to improve the defined benefit system by recommending more sensible and solid solutions to the current defined benefit system that will continue to create a sustainable retirement annuity for Louisiana’s educational retirees.
Just before the end of the 2009 Louisiana legislative session, a joint house and senate retirement committee was formed under committee resolution HCSR 1. What is the joint committees’ charge? “Study the issue of converting state retirement plans for future employees from a defined-benefit pension plan to a defined contribution plan.”
The defined benefit pension plan is what public school employees in Louisiana have through the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL). It provides a formula, currently around 2.5% times the average of your highest three years salary times the number of years you worked, to determine your retirement annuity. A person who works 30 years will retire with a pension of about 70% of salary.
TRSL receives retirement contributions from employees, the state and school districts. It hires well paid experts to manage its investment portfolio to not only grow the fund, but also to provide the revenue necessary for monthly annuity checks. When a slump occurs in the stock market, like the one most recently in 2008-2009, the system is still receiving funds from employees, the state and school districts and has ample money to continue paying benefits until the market rebounds, as has happened in the past and is currently happening now.
Since most public school employees do not have access to Social Security and do not get automatic cost-of-living adjustments, the defined benefit plan provides them the security of a guaranteed retirement.
The defined contribution plan, which is used by many private businesses, to supplement the defined benefit Social Security income private employees will also receive, provides that during an employee’s working career he/she will contribute a percentage of salary and the employer will contribute a percentage of salary to a tax deferred retirement account.
At retirement the employer, has no further obligation to the employee. The employee has a “nest-egg” accrued over the years and as a retiree has to assume the total responsibility of managing or paying someone to manage that account for the rest of his/her life.
The last decade is a classic example of the vagaries of the stock market. People with defined contribution accounts, 401(k), etc. did very well during the mid- and late 1990s when the stock market was yielding double-digit returns almost every year. When the most recent slump hit, many of those 401(k) accounts began to look more like 201(k) accounts. Many people lost 30%, 40% and even 50% of their retirement savings in a just a few years.
The core issues in the defined benefit vs. defined contribution discussion are deciding what the primary purpose of a retirement system is and who is best qualified to fulfill that purpose. LAE feels a retirement system ought to reward the career educational employees who have served this state for 25, 30 or 40 years (yes, there are still people working in our schools for 40 and more years). Since this is the only retirement fund available to most educators LAE feels the investment experts at TRSL can garner a better return on funds in the stock market than each of the 88,000 employees and 62,000 retirees and beneficiaries could do individually.
LAE will continue to support the defined benefit system for educational retirees in Louisiana. Rather than change a system that has worked well for the last 70 years, LAE will be working with the Legislature to improve the defined benefit system by recommending more sensible and solid solutions to the current defined benefit system that will continue to create a sustainable retirement annuity for Louisiana’s educational retirees.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Are You Listening and Watching Race To The Top?
LAE declares current iteration unfavorable to educators
What concerns LAE about Race to the Top (R2T)?
1) The mandate that 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation will be based upon a single measure of assessment (student test score). The DOE was unwilling to work on concerns around teacher evaluation and the philosophical use of student assessments as at least 50 percent of the teacher evaluation process.
a) This philosophical focus is seriously questioned in much of the research, does both teachers and students a disservice, and provides a stumbling block to serious negotiations around developing an effective teacher evaluation process that can be supported by the entire education community;
b) Placing too much focus on standardized tests can actually harm student instruction and over-all student growth by putting too much emphasis on a narrow-based test;
c) Value-added-and to some extent growth models of assessment, are inconsistent and not fully transparent to those being assessed;
d) There is decision of what other factors will be present in the teacher evaluation.
2) LAE also has concerns dealing with the state data system coupled with interim benchmark assessments. While we support strong, accessible data that can inform instruction, in the past there has been, and continues to be, the opportunity for such systems to be misused. LAE has some concerns that the state will reinstate scripted curricular programs with defined instructional practices rather than allow the "great teachers and leaders" at the school to make professional, informed decisions at the school and classroom level.
Other LAE concerns:
1) The indication that due process as we now know will be adversely affected.
2) The indication that benefits currently enjoyed by school employees will be adversely affected.
3) The lack of financial sustainability.
4) Early Race to the Top draft documents included 3.5 times as many dollars for charter schools as for large districts on a per student count.
5) What state dollars will be re-directed to support Race to the Top? Will the Minimum Foundation Program be reduced? Will programs such as National Accreditation grants be reduced?
6) Will BESE decide to allow the superintendent to gain control of 8g funds?
The aforementioned concerns are only the tip of the iceberg. You may have concerns that may not have been listed, but are equally as important.
January and February of 2010 will be very interesting. As the situation seems to change by the day, LAE urges your vigilance and requests your participation in our Association's democratic process.
For more information, go to www.lae.org.
What concerns LAE about Race to the Top (R2T)?
1) The mandate that 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation will be based upon a single measure of assessment (student test score). The DOE was unwilling to work on concerns around teacher evaluation and the philosophical use of student assessments as at least 50 percent of the teacher evaluation process.
a) This philosophical focus is seriously questioned in much of the research, does both teachers and students a disservice, and provides a stumbling block to serious negotiations around developing an effective teacher evaluation process that can be supported by the entire education community;
b) Placing too much focus on standardized tests can actually harm student instruction and over-all student growth by putting too much emphasis on a narrow-based test;
c) Value-added-and to some extent growth models of assessment, are inconsistent and not fully transparent to those being assessed;
d) There is decision of what other factors will be present in the teacher evaluation.
2) LAE also has concerns dealing with the state data system coupled with interim benchmark assessments. While we support strong, accessible data that can inform instruction, in the past there has been, and continues to be, the opportunity for such systems to be misused. LAE has some concerns that the state will reinstate scripted curricular programs with defined instructional practices rather than allow the "great teachers and leaders" at the school to make professional, informed decisions at the school and classroom level.
Other LAE concerns:
1) The indication that due process as we now know will be adversely affected.
2) The indication that benefits currently enjoyed by school employees will be adversely affected.
3) The lack of financial sustainability.
4) Early Race to the Top draft documents included 3.5 times as many dollars for charter schools as for large districts on a per student count.
5) What state dollars will be re-directed to support Race to the Top? Will the Minimum Foundation Program be reduced? Will programs such as National Accreditation grants be reduced?
6) Will BESE decide to allow the superintendent to gain control of 8g funds?
The aforementioned concerns are only the tip of the iceberg. You may have concerns that may not have been listed, but are equally as important.
January and February of 2010 will be very interesting. As the situation seems to change by the day, LAE urges your vigilance and requests your participation in our Association's democratic process.
For more information, go to www.lae.org.
Friday, January 8, 2010
EBRPAE urges school board to "stay away from R2T"
Carole White, EBRPAE President, urged East Baton Rouge Parish school board members at Thursday night’s special called school board meeting to stay away from the state’s Race To The Top (R2T) program, explaining that the EBRPAE cannot support or endorse a plan that lacks clarity, lacks financial sustainability and significantly changes a teacher evaluation with the outcome resulting mainly from student test scores. “EBRPAE believes that a proactive approach is needed to improve schools in Louisiana; however, in rushing a grant application focused on beliefs rather than what actually works is an injustice to the children of this parish”, remarked White in an interview.
White said that she is sensitive to both the need for additional resources and support, which may be provided to the local school district through the R2T grant. She believes that there are portions of the grant that could improve student performance in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System. However, she is gravely concerned that the State Department of Education is using money and strong-armed political tactics to lure the East Parish School System into participating in the program and later placing more unfunded federal and state mandates on the school system. White added, “Local school districts are being told by the State Department of Education to ‘trust us’. A verbal promise is only worth the paper that it is written on. And I am definitely not in favor of signing blank checks in my personal life, so I certainly can’t agree to do this in my professional life”.
White stated in her speech to the school that she doesn’t trust the promises of state Superintendent Paul Pastorek. “How many times you do you have to pick up a snake before you realize it bites?” White asked.
Regretfully, the school board did not heed the warning and voted 10-1 in favor of signing on to Race To The Top. Board member Derrick Spell was absent.
Board member Noel Hammatt was the only no vote. “There is no research supporting the four pillars of Race To The Top,” Hammatt said. He was particularly critical of teacher-performance pay. “There is no research to support pay for performance in complex tasks,” Hammatt said.
Even though, board member Greg Baldwin voted in favor of signing on to Race To The Top, he also criticized the performance-pay part of the plan based on his experience in private business. “I don’t like this,” Baldwin said, “but you’re telling me if we vote for this tonight, we have not sold our soul to the devil.”
For more information, visit http://www.lae.org/
White said that she is sensitive to both the need for additional resources and support, which may be provided to the local school district through the R2T grant. She believes that there are portions of the grant that could improve student performance in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System. However, she is gravely concerned that the State Department of Education is using money and strong-armed political tactics to lure the East Parish School System into participating in the program and later placing more unfunded federal and state mandates on the school system. White added, “Local school districts are being told by the State Department of Education to ‘trust us’. A verbal promise is only worth the paper that it is written on. And I am definitely not in favor of signing blank checks in my personal life, so I certainly can’t agree to do this in my professional life”.
White stated in her speech to the school that she doesn’t trust the promises of state Superintendent Paul Pastorek. “How many times you do you have to pick up a snake before you realize it bites?” White asked.
Regretfully, the school board did not heed the warning and voted 10-1 in favor of signing on to Race To The Top. Board member Derrick Spell was absent.
Board member Noel Hammatt was the only no vote. “There is no research supporting the four pillars of Race To The Top,” Hammatt said. He was particularly critical of teacher-performance pay. “There is no research to support pay for performance in complex tasks,” Hammatt said.
Even though, board member Greg Baldwin voted in favor of signing on to Race To The Top, he also criticized the performance-pay part of the plan based on his experience in private business. “I don’t like this,” Baldwin said, “but you’re telling me if we vote for this tonight, we have not sold our soul to the devil.”
For more information, visit http://www.lae.org/
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