Why should ineffective teachers get a raise?

As someone who hopes to enter the teaching ranks, Caroline Gilligan can’t understand how a system that gives automatic raises to teachers, regardless of performance or effectiveness, has been accepted for so long.

"If you’re not an effective teacher, why should you be getting a raise?" asks Gilligan, a junior at the University of New Hampshire.

It seems like a pretty simple concept, but merit pay, or rewarding the best teachers with higher compensation, is a controversial subject that has been debated for decades. School districts across the country have long struggled to find a way to measure and reward teacher effectiveness in a way that is fair.

Gilligan, a 21-year-old student in the school’s teacher education program, thinks tying teacher pay to standardized test scores isn’t the right way to go. You could be the best teacher in the school, but low test scores can be linked to a number of factors that aren’t always related to the quality of teaching, she said.

But as part of group that spent the past semester researching successful merit pay systems that have been implemented in districts, Gilligan thinks there are ways to ensure teachers get the raises they deserve.

Last week, undergraduate and graduate students presented ideas for education reform to state political leaders at a symposium on the Durham campus. Students in assistant professor Sarah Stitzlein’s "Educational Structure and Change" course spent the semester researching topics of reform, including lengthening the school year, academic tracking and No Child Left Behind.

The idea was to give the next generation of teachers the confidence to talk about their ideas for education reform, Stitzlein said. In schools, new teachers often feel they have to toe the line for those first few years, she said.

"Hopefully, we can get some agents of change in there," Stitzlein said.

Gilligan, who is pursuing a master’s degree in elementary education, said her group came up with a system that combines aspects of merit pay models used in Portland, Maine, and Pittsburgh. Teachers would be measured on their willingness to pursue professional development opportunities, as well as on a series of meetings with principals to review and evaluate the methods they are using in their classrooms.

"Under our system, there wouldn’t be any tenure," she said. "You would have to receive positive evaluation to move up in the school. Teachers would be recognized for their good teaching."

Heading into the research project, Gilligan had heard a lot of negative things about merit pay, but said if done correctly, it can improve education. And although teachers unions are generally thought of as being opposed to the idea, Gilligan said many of the ideas her group used were taken from those put forward by unions.

Maggie Macintosh, 22, was part of a group that looked at the use of scripted curriculum in schools. Macintosh said using scripted curriculum can stifle innovation and make it difficult to adapt to the needs of students.

"Basically, the teacher is told what to do, and there is no real room for creativity when it comes to designing lessons or projects," she said.

The group did propose requiring schools that have failed to make progress on standardized tests to use scripted curriculum, as opposed to some of the more drastic measures being required, such as firing staff or closing the school.

Macintosh is pursuing a master’s degree in special education. She spent this year working as a special education paraprofessional at Oyster River High School in Durham. The job has been a learning experience, and she has been looking for an elementary teaching job for the fall. However, with districts battling financial problems, it’s been tough.

"There hasn’t been much posted in the way of job openings," Macintosh said.

Anneliese Lenaghan, 24, focused on virtual learning and its use in public education. New Hampshire has its own Virtual Learning Academy, a public charter school based in Exeter, and Lenaghan said part of her group’s research was to speak with the founders of that school. Lenaghan said a vast majority of the charter school’s students are full-time students at other high schools in the state who take courses either to get caught up or to go beyond what is offered at their school.

"They’re not trying to take over the regular schooling. They’re about using their system in conjunction with a standard schooling system to give better opportunities to students," she said.

Some districts have tried to use online learning in an innovative way. For example, Kearsarge Regional High School in North Sutton used the charter school to hold classes on snow days, which means there are no make-up days at the end of the year, she said.

Lenaghan is pursuing a master’s degree in secondary education, focusing on social studies. Originally from Amherst, she will be interning at Souhegan High School next year. Lenaghan said it’s critical to the future of education to embrace technology.

"Education needs to change with the times," she said. "To a certain extent, we’re still based in the 19th-century and early-20th-century models of education."

Gilligan said the politicians who came out to the symposium were receptive and asked good questions. This was the first symposium of its kind for the university.

"We never get to have these discussions with people who can make a difference in education legislation," she said. "We were able to promote the changes we hope to see."