Can we do merit pay right?

“By the way, we have merit pay now.”

Merit pay is a hugely contentious issue, dividing teachers, administrators, and policymakers. There is a body of evidence showing that merit pay will help improve student performance, especially when incentives are provided at the school, not individual level. Research from a 2012 paper by three economists, including Steven Levitt (of Freakonomics fame) found that student achievement data in K-8 schools in Chicago increased a statistically significant amount under certain merit pay conditions. Notably, they found that when teachers were given the promise of money and stood to lose that money, their work actually produced the most gains.

Other merit pay concepts have less to do with year-to-year growth, instead focusing on attracting educators who are established as effective teachers to low-performing schools. One promising model was implementedin Los Angeles, Miami, and Houston. Researchers from Mathematica identified open positions in high-need schools and paid teachers with a track record of excellent scores $20,000 extra over two years to teach at these schools. Student achievement gains for those teachers’ classrooms was 4 to 10 percentile points higher than teachers in a control group -  a dramatic difference. What’s more, 60% of these teachers opted to stay in the high-need schools even after the merit pay experiment ended.

Assuming that performance on the assessments used is a good measure of student success, it’s hard to argue with the peer-reviewed studies.

In my home state of New Mexico, the NMPED recently rolled out a new merit pay pilot program, allowing certain districts around the state to design their own model for compensating teachers based on performance. My own school district has chosen to implement a cooperative merit structure, providing $2000 for each teacher in schools that improve their NCLB ‘school grade’ by one full letter (in our case that’s a ‘D’ to a ‘C’). It’s also a significant jump of about 15 points, which for our school would be last years total of 36 leveled-up to 51.

This is a very interesting program in our district, from a policy standpoint as well as a personal gain perspective. So how did my district and principal choose to roll out this fresh incentive program? To all staff at a meeting to get us onboard and invested in the program? To academic departments on the whole, to get us psyched to guide our students to greater-than-ever gains this year?

Nope, none of the above. Instead it was inserted as a footnote, more of a passing comment really. As my principal walked out of my classroom one day, he mentioned to me and another teacher, “Oh, by the way, we have merit pay now.” No more information, no indication of how this merit pay scheme might work…it was almost as if he were ashamed of it. It was also the middle of the school year.

When the research shows that merit pay can work when schools invest teachers in the program, and help them work collaboratively to achieve the goals set forth, policymakers and enactors have the responsibility to give it the best chance of success. Regardless of your predispositions on this issue, our school and district have received the grant, and the money is there if learning is improved.

So, New Mexico, let’s do it right and give merit pay every chance to succeed – it just might help our kids and our teachers in the end.

Indigenous Schools Initiative "Opens the eyes" of local School Board

Exciting education news seems to be coming quickly these days in New Mexico Indian Country.

The Gallup Indigenous School Initiative (GISI) is the newest “Indigenous Education” charter opportunity to come to Northwestern New Mexico. The charter has submitted its letter of intent to the NMPED, the first step in a charter process. The school plans to open to 6^th and 7^th graders in 2016, eventually expanding to 6-12. As part of the Native American Community Academy (NACA)-Inspired school network, the school’s mission is to “To re-imagine the school experience for American Indian students by building a school through a community-led design process within the Native American community around Gallup, NM that reflects the strengths, aspirations, values, and history of that community” (http://gisi.weebly.com/).

GISI, spearheaded by the founding team of Ben Soce, Masika Sweetwyne, and Lane Towery, gave an initial presentation to the GMCS school board on Tuesday, January 20. The founding team elaborated on the Native identity-affirming principles of the school, STEAM curriculum model, and ongoing work in the Gallup community-led design process.

“You’ve opened our eyes,” said Board President Joe Menini following the presentation.

Read more about GISI here.

Gallup-Mckinley Board Goes two ways on charters

At their last meeting, the Gallup-Mckinley Country school board heard two different proposals from groups looking to develop charter school partnerships within the district. 

The results could not have been more different.

The first group to speak with the board was DEAP School of Empowerment, Action, and Perseverance. The charter project and its founder, Kayla Begay, who I've written about previously, are opening a school which aims at the restoration and perpetuation of Navajo Culture. The curriculum is focused on Agricultural Science, Diné Culture, Personal Wellness, and Community Action and Service.

Despite DEAP’s charter being granted through the NMPED (Gallup-Mckinley schools declined to authorize DEAP in 2014) Ms. Begay’s proposal was to share under-utilized facilities with the district in Navajo, NM. In an earlier conversation, she explained that DEAP would have ideally chartered through the district. “Chartering through a district would be the best way, to be mutually beneficial. Why don’t we co-exist?” Begay said. “There are some unused or underused facilities in GMCS but I think it ultimately comes down to the district being willing to collaborate.”

As it turned out, the board expressed that it was unwilling to collaborate or offer facilities in a sharing arrangement, despite facility availabilities in the perennially under-enrolled Navajo Middle and High schools. Because the Navajo schools are already under-enrolled, they said, assisting a charter would be tantamount to encouraging school closure or consolidation of GMCS schools. “I think that GMCS does see us as a threat,” Begay said. “They are saying ‘If the charter school takes all the students, then we will have to close the GMCS schools.’ But we [The Navajo Community] have been asking for this school for so long, and they are not doing anything about it.”

Another charter, however, non-threatening to the district and its enrollment, received the enthusiastic support of the board.

The second charter, the Gallup Indigenous Education Initiative (GISI), shared their plan for creating an indigenous-ed charter within the much-larger student population of Gallup. Without the threat of losing schools or significant ADM money to the charter, the board enthusiastically welcomed the proposal and voiced initial support for the GISI as they move forward. Superintendent Frank Chiapetti, referring to the proposed culturally responsive school, went so far as to say “I think we could see a niche in Gallup for this sort of school.”

I find the district’s support of school choice a huge step forward for GMCS — especially choice that includes more relevance for Native American students. But this is a case of false virtue if they are only willing to back schools that serve their organizational continuity, not the needs of students. Maybe it's asking too much for the district to look beyond their immediate self-interest and into new options, but for a school district that's already bleeding students like Navajo's, some more creative adaptation may be needed to satisfy community desires to keep their students from going elsewhere.

Please read more about DEAPschool opening in Navajo, NM and the GISI charter in Gallup, NM,