BACK IN mid-January-you know, back before it got cold, as in March 2014 cold-the state of Arkansas handed out bonuses to public schools that were . . . doing the job. As in educating students. Teachers, students and principals assembled in gyms across the state as envelopes were opened and checks waved in the air. A good time was had by all.
The checks weren’t life-changing. Maybe just school-changing. Because the money could be spent on whatever those schools got approved by the state. Including new equipment or computers. Or more classroom aides. Or bonuses for teachers.
Yes, bonuses for teachers. As if teachers weren’t in the business of education just for the love of teaching but also because they (1) have a very human need for recognition and (2) have a very human need to eat. And pay bills. And keep the car running. Some of us have never understood the argument that merit pay won’t work in education. Especially since it seems to work everywhere else it’s been tried. For money is not only recognition and reward, but also incentive.
So back in mid-January, the state handed out $7 million to 206 public schools, about the top 20 percent in the state, based on a formula that gave the schools $90 for each student in the top performing schools-call them the A-honor roll-and $45 for each student in the B schools.
It was something. It wasn’t enough-not even what the law requires. For the law says the top schools should get $100 for each student and the next-best schools $50. But smaller checks are the results when the state picks some arbitrary number out of the air-$7 million last year-and tells the best schools to divvy it up the best they can.
How could anybody possibly know if $7 million would do the trick year-to year? Answer: Nobody can know. Which is why schools got the $90 and $45 instead of the full amount they should have.
Some of us have wondered why the state can’t do more. Or as one nosy government-watcher said on January 16th of this year:
“Let’s just call these checks a good beginning. And point out that the Legislature could increase the reward money for the best schools every year until the sum reaches the WOW! level. Instead of just handing out the same amounts to all, and so rewarding the mediocre and inferior along with the best. Why not give exceptional rewards for exceptional results?”-Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Why not indeed?
Especially given the news that arrived just the other day.
THE STATE of Arkansas has a $126-million surplus. That’s one hundred and twenty-six million dollars more than what’s needed to pay the state’s bills in the coming year. The Ledge wanted to bank most of the surplus. Which is admirable. Would that our senators and representatives in Washington, D.C., were as conservative when it comes to managing the nation’s checkbook. (The state has the great advantage of having a Revenue Stabilization Act that keeps it out of further debt-unlike the feds.)
The governor’s budget for the coming fiscal year does indeed keep the bonus program funded. At $7 million again.
The state needs to forget arbitrary figures. Sure, the governor deserves credit for putting the money in the budget, but it’s become habit to fund the program at a specific dollar amount. The incentives should be funded as the law requires, which would mean the cost could go up-or down-depending on how the state’s schools perform.
Also, this rewards program-and its funding-should be made a permanent part of the state’s education budget. It would be a small fraction to pay in a budget of billions for public schools in this state. Rewarding teachers, principals and their schools for performance should not be some discretionary item that has to be reviewed year by year.
And those rewards-those checks, that recognition-should also come much faster. The tests taken by students are usually taken at the end of the school year, but it took the state more than six months to cut the checks last time around. State government doubtless has all sorts of bureaucratic reasons why it takes it so long-like reviews that have to be conducted, hoops jumped through, and forms filled out in triplicate. But anyone who knows anything about rewards knows that you need to deliver them soon after people earn them, not a half-year later, if they are to have the most impact.
Yes, back in January, the state got a good start at recognizing the best of the best in education. Now it’s time to do more than start, again and again, year after year.
WHILE we’re on the subject, there is another way to improve the rewards system other than just increase the amounts rewarded. Under the current system, half of the grade given to each school is based on over-all academic performance, the other half on academic improvement. For example, a high-performing school might score a 98 in performance, but because the school has done so well for so long, get next to no boost from any improvement. (How much can you improve on a high A?)
On the other hand, a school that has historically bad grades year after year can make a lot of improvement in one semester, get credit for that, but still not be rewarded because of its poor performance over-all.
What the state should do is go back to the original rules and law-Act 35, passed in 2004-before that law was changed. And give out two separate sets of rewards, one for current performance, one for improvement. Not only would that approach be fairer to the schools, it would give parents a better understanding of just where their child’s school ranks in terms of real, quality education.
A good time was had by all in January when those checks were handed out. Better times could be had-if lawmakers would only allow it.
Editorial, Pages 82 on 03/16/2014