My home county has been going through a process to figure out how to improve the quality of schools in order to be a “World-Class Educational System.” Of course, this is a complicated subject not the least of which is in defining “World-Class”. Here in the Free State our elected officials are convinced that that means high test scores.
Regardless, one would think that a school district that pays teachers below the state average, in the lowest paying state,1 that that might be the first issue on the agenda.
It’s an issue on the agenda. But it seems that the question is, how do we convince voters that we are addressing teacher pay without actually paying teacher more.
See the video below for the full workshop. The Phase II Compensation Presentation begins at 1:35:00
So, Lee County is breaking out what it calls Phase II of its compensation strategy. The presenter made it a point to emphasize how complicated compensation was. That’s why I began with a counter-claim. It’s not that complicated from the point of view of the teacher who is grading papers on a steering wheel because they have to drive for Uber at night to make ends meet.
To see the presentation click here.
Central to the Phase II plan seems to be what is called an “Open Range Payroll System.” Sounds like a John Wayne Movie, like the school board is going to clean up Dodge City. That’s not exactly what it is. I looked it up. An Open Range System puts management of pay increases in the hands of the district with pay defined within a given range (who gets to determine that range), with payroll “families” defined no the spectrum of that given range. Say ESE teachers will get the median pay rate while Social Studies teachers get the first quartile of the range. On the surface, it looks like an attempt to bipass collective bargaining.
In the video I reference something called the Career Ladder. I didn’t have time to elaborate. Some years ago, the state of Florida took away the steps that defined teacher pay according to years’ experience. Lee County replaced this with a system called the Career Ladder. It was sold to teachers as this great opportunity to increase their pay. All they had to do was attend workshops and Professional Development courses and work their way up the Career Ladder. The harder they worked, the more pay they got. Each rung on the Career Ladder would increase base pay by $1000.
Problem, there were only two rungs on the ladder. That means that a teacher with thirty years on the Career Ladder could only count on two raises throughout their career. And moving up the Career Ladder meant navigating a complicated bureaucratic process. In my case, my Career Ladder advancement was postponed because I was missing a single PD point in one of the “buckets” of training I had to fill. In my case it was Classroom Management. I always scored "Highly Effective” in classroom management. I didn’t really need more training in classroom management, but I did need that one point. Unfortunately, I had to wait until the PD course was offered. So, no raise for me until I could get that one point. That one point cost me $1000!
It was a scam. And every teacher knew it was a scam because every teacher had a story just like mine.
Now they are being sold a bill of goods on this Open Range System. I’m sure when the time comes the board members will go school to school and explain how the Open Range System is this great opportunity for teachers to make more money. We’ve seen this movie before.
Oops! It looks like Florida beats Mississippi by $900. My bad!
