For Immediate Release: October 5, 2000

True Crisis of "Accountability": Incompetent Teachers Receive the Same Pay as Good Teachers and Are Nearly Impossible To Fire

SAN FRANCISCO, October 4, 2000 -- While Vice President Al Gore focused on smaller class size and the need for 100,000 new teachers in the first Presidential debate, a new study shows that California does not suffer from an overall teacher shortage, and that public schools perform poorly because teachers are given no incentive for high performance. They are paid at the same level regardless of results and are virtually impossible to fire under the current system.

Unsatisfactory Performance: How California's K-12 Education System Protects Mediocrity and How Teacher Quality Can Be Improved,released today by the California-based Pacific Research Institute, highlights Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, Santa Clara, Anderson, Clovis, Elk Grove and Orcutt school districts.

"Research confirms that teachers are the most important factor in a child’s education," explain co-authors Thomas Dawson and Lloyd Billingsley. "But unlike other professions, California teachers get paid the same no matter how they perform. There’s no incentive for improvement."

The study reveals the following key findings:

• TENURE AFTER ONLY TWO YEARS MAKES DISMISSAL VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE

  Unsatisfactory Performance cites research showing that the difference between a good teacher and an incompetent teacher can be more than one grade level of achievement. But under California law, California teachers are tenured after only two years; it can cost districts up to $300,000 and years of paper work to get an incompetent teacher dismissed. Most districts choose not to take on the system, and either leave incompetent teachers in place or buy-out teacher contracts for as much as $30,000-$100,000.

  According to state records, from 1990 through 1999 in Los Angeles only one teacher went through the dismissal process from start to finish. There are 300,000 teachers in California but over the decade from 1990-1999, only 227 cases, less than one-tenth of one percent, reached the final phase of the dismissal process.

  "The actual number of tenured teachers dismissed for poor performance is lower and a virtual proxy for zero," said the authors. "As one education official noted, it takes longer to fire a teacher than to convict a murderer."

  • TEACHERS HIGHLY PAID BUT RAISES NOT TIED TO PERFORMANCE

  California teachers are highly paid, but pay and classroom assignments are based on seniority and collective bargaining agreements, a system that keeps students at the mercy of incompetent teachers.

  California teacher salaries rank eighth nationwide, despite the fact that California students languish third from the bottom among the 50 states in reading. They score above only Guam, Mississippi, Louisiana, and the District of Columbia in math.

  In San Diego, the study finds, the salary schedule tops $60,000 and teachers’ salaries are higher than those of local engineers, chemists, computer programmers, and other demanding professions in which pay is tied to performance.

  The study also finds that districts paying teachers the most do not have the highest test scores, and that some high-spending districts, such as Oakland, have continued to hike pay while student performance has worsened.

  • TEACHER SHORTAGE ONLY IN MATH AND SCIENCE

  Rather than a general teacher shortage, Unsatisfactory Performance finds a shortage of teachers in crucial areas such as math and science. The most recent data show that just 49.8 percent of high-school math teachers have a math degree and 27 percent of the state’s high-school teachers lack a degree in their subject.

  But the standard teacher pay scale based on seniority does not allow districts the flexibility to attract math and science teachers with pay incentives.

  • CURRENT "REFORMS" WILL NOT ACHIEVE TRUE REFORM

  Unsatisfactory Performance finds ineffective reforms currently being touted by political candidates, such as federal subsidies for local teachers, spending an additional $115 billion on the federal Department of Education, teacher peer-review, class-size reduction, plans for national credentials, and lockstep pay increases for good and bad teachers alike.

  To improve teacher quality, the study makes the following recommendations:

  • Introduce performance incentives and replace the tenure system with performance contracts for teachers and principals.

  • Change the dismissal of incompetent teachers from an impossibility to a practical reality.

  • Give principals greater control in hiring and firing.

  • Implement differential pay to compensate for uneven distribution of teachers across academic subjects.

  • Expand parental choice in education.

  "California protects incompetent teachers at the expense of students and good teachers," explain the authors. "Policymakers should opt for the accountability and standards that put the needs of children above the demands of an irresponsible system."

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For more information, please contact Dawn Dingwell at (415) 989-0833, ext. 136.