Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.metro From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Parents say merit pay unfairly distributed Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 15:23:03 EST Message-ID: \SE B;METROPOLITAN \HD Parents say merit pay unfairly distributed \BY Maria Koklanaris \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Parents of students at Fairfax County schools with low numbers of merit-pay teachers said yesterday they are concerned that the program shortchanged some communities in the older, less prosperous parts of the county. They said they want to know why a new report showed many schools in poorer areas have fewer than 10 percent of the top-rated teachers on their faculties, while some schools in wealthy areas have up to 40 percent. "I think parents would be curious to know . . . why in this part of the county, the percentage is so much lower" than in the newer, richer parts of the county, said Kay Zebron, president of the PTA at Franconia Elementary in the southeastern part of the county. "Do they have better teachers? And if so, why? I think our teachers are wonderful, but maybe they are missing out on something," she said. At the request of School Board member Letty Fleetwood of Providence, Superintendent Robert Spillane on Monday gave the board a list of the number of merit-pay teachers in each of the county's 192 schools and special-education centers. The report showed that while merit-pay teachers are fairly evenly distributed among high schools, the bulk of the elementary schools with few merit-pay teachers are in the poorer and older parts of the county. Most information about merit-pay teachers was confidential until the School Board's February vote to suspend payment of the 9 percent bonus the county's 2,200 merit-pay teachers were due to receive. Mr. Spillane, architect of the merit-pay plan, said there are many variables - including the age of a school, the attitude of its faculty and principal - that could determine the number of merit-pay teachers in any particular school. But he said the disparities shown in the report are "the greatest argument for bringing back" merit pay. "We need to have more [merit-pay teachers] and we need to have them in our poorer areas," he said. While he believes merit-pay teachers could be persuaded to work in all schools in the county, he said he would never force teachers to go to any particular school or area. "To assign a great teacher to a school or an environment that he or she doesn't want to go to is not going to help the teacher, the school or the child," Mr. Spillane said. Mrs. Fleetwood, who opposes merit pay, said the list confirmed her suspicions that poorer and older communities were paying their share of tax dollars for the program but reaping few of the benefits. "Why should the people in those schools be supporting the merit-pay program?" she said. Parents said many of them will be asking the same question at a time when the proposed 1994 school budget is $21.2 million in the red. About $4.4 million would go for a 4.5 percent merit-pay bonus. "In light of the continuing budget problems that we hear about so frequently, . . . this would be much more interesting to parents than it might have been in the past," said Sherry Johannsen, president of the PTA at Bren Mar Park Elementary near Alexandria. Two of the school's 26 teachers earned merit pay, according to the report. Gloria Dean, a Mount Vernon area parent who formed a "Saturday school" for as many as 50 children who come weekly to Mount Vernon High School to get extra help and learn new skills, said she was disturbed to hear that the school, with 17 percent merit-pay teachers, had the least of any high school in the county. "I think our teachers are certainly deserving, and we should be in the same range as other schools," Mrs. Dean said. Kenton Pattie, president of the Fairfax County Council of PTAs, said most parents are not yet aware they can find out the number of merit-pay teachers in their child's school, but she predicted intense interest once the news gets around. "I think some parents are going to be shocked when they realize that their school hadn't attracted more [merit pay] teachers," Mr. Pattie said. "It does raise the question: Are they getting the full, aggressive, positive teaching environment that every parent aspires to for their kid?" Some parents said they were worried that their schools would be seen as inferior because they had few merit-pay teachers. "Our teachers are fantastic," said Teddi Cole, whose son attends Bonnie Brae Elementary School in Fairfax, which has just under 10 percent merit-pay teachers. "I have never had one teacher that has been bad," she said. "I've been in the school at 9 o'clock at night and I've seen teachers there working." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM