CMS teacher ratings: What's the buzz?

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board will get an update on the talent effectiveness project tonight, with a target of making decisions this spring about how to pilot new teacher ratings in 2012-13.

It was just about a year ago that news of the district's expanded testing program broke. Anxiety among teachers was high, as CMS official Andy Baxter visited schools trying to explain new value-added ratings based on test scores. Then-Superintendent Peter Gorman fueled further outrage when state representatives introduced a bill his staff had helped draft that would allow CMS to launch performance pay without teacher approval.

Since then Gorman has departed, the bill is on hold and the folks who remain are trying to hit  "reset"  on the effort.  CMS is still using the additional tests,  and leaders still plan to replace the current pay scale,  based on experience and credentials,  with one based on student results and other measures of performance.  But they're trying to do a better job of listening to teachers and building buy-in for the changes.

Is it working?  I'm not hearing the angst that I was this time last year.  But it's hard to know if that's because teachers are happier,  or just because it's not a front-burner item.

At tonight's meeting,  teachers who have been working with CMS to craft better measures of effectiveness will report. The board won't take action,  but anyone who's interested can attend the meeting, turn on CMS-TV 3 or watch online.  (There's a budget meeting beforehand,  and if experience is any guide,  that could mean a late start to the 6 p.m. business meeting.)

As always, the electronic floor is open for discussion.

CMS tests still spark skepticism

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is building some support for its quest to do a better job of evaluating teachers and helping them develop their skills.  But the slew of new tests the district created last spring still seems to pose a barrier to public support for the  "talent effectiveness project."

That was my take-away from last night's public conversation on " How Should We Grade Our Teachers,"  sponsored by WFAE.  More than 100 people  --  most of them CMS teachers or parents, from the show of hands  --  turned out to talk with teachers and the district's human-resources chief.

Panelists Larry Bosc,  a teacher from East Meck,  and Courtney Mason,  a teacher from Piney Grove Elementary,  agreed the new state teacher evaluations are better than the old version, providing a broader view of what teachers do for their schools and students. Bosc,  however,  noted that they impose a huge time demand on the school administrators who have to perform them.

Mason,  a fourth-year teacher,  voiced enthusiasm for the latest quest to get teachers involved in figuring out how to gauge effectiveness and help teachers improve.  Bosc,  who has taught 34 years,  was more wary.  He said he fears talent effectiveness is just a new name for performance pay,  and decided not to commit 90 minutes a week through April to volunteer for a study group whose suggestions might be ignored.

Chief HR Officer Daniel Habrat insisted CMS is serious about learning from last year's mistakes and listening to teachers.  "We have an opportunity to correct a misstep and start anew," he said.

Panelists and audience members agreed on the need to respect and pay teachers like true professionals  --  though many said handing out small rewards based on performance means less than boosting the overall pay scale.  Most of the audience comments focused on the dozens of new year-end tests CMS launched last spring as part of its performance-pay push.  One mother cried as she talked about how the tests squeeze out time for art and music.

"What I have seen go on last spring and this fall I find totally unacceptable,"  she said.  "I promised my husband if I saw the same thing happen this spring,  I would pull  (our daughter)  and just home-school."

Habrat said as a CMS parent,  he was "not a fan" of last spring's testing,  either.  But he noted that the state is getting ready to develop additional tests,  which will also be used to evaluate teacher performance.  And he said the full slate of CMS testing will continue this spring,  though the tests should be somewhat shorter.

Ultimately,  it will be up to the school board and the new superintendent to decide how much testing the district will do beyond what the state requires.  Habrat told the group that if the district abandoned its new year-end tests, it would not derail the push to come up with better evaluations and support for teachers.

WFAE plans to post audio of the discussion and take comments on the topic at this site,  though it could take a day or two.

More about money and motivation

Some readers of today's story about the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools "talent effectiveness project" are skeptical of the notion that money doesn't motivate teachers to do better work.

I admit my eyebrows raised during Tuesday night's board meeting,  when Chief Human Resource Officer Daniel Habrat told the board it's not only ineffective but insulting to tell teachers,  "Here's a dollar;  do a better job."   Habrat came to CMS in March from Wells Fargo/Wachovia,  an industry known for offering quite a few dollars in performance bonuses.  I've never heard that bankers are insulted by that.

The next day,  I asked Habrat to elaborate.  Top performers,  in banking or any other business,  want to excel,  he said.  It's not that the best bankers would slack off without the bonus,  but that the competition could lure them away if pay and bonuses weren't competitive.

The market for teachers,  of course,  is different. Public schools employ the vast majority,  and the pay scale is set mostly by the state  (which has failed to provide experience-based raises or test-score-based bonuses for the last three years).  Mecklenburg County taxpayers provide a supplement to help CMS compete with other N.C.  districts.  Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh said CMS used to offer the  state's top wages;  now,  he said,  it has fallen to fourth or fifth.

But Habrat said the long-term concern is the good teachers who work four or five years,  hit their stride,  then switch careers to better support a family.  CMS needs to figure out where those teachers are going and what kind of pay it would take to get top performers to enter and stick with teaching.

Of course,  finding the money remains a challenge.  The CMS timeline calls for the superintendent and top central-office staff to start getting part of their pay based on performance this school year,  with school administrators joining them next year.  Habrat said Tuesday that won't happen because the money isn't there.  Instead,  he said,  administrators will have performance-based goals that will be used to help them improve.  By 2013-14,  when teachers are slated to go online with performance pay,  officials would love to have consensus around standards and money to back it up.  But nothing's certain about that.

On Wednesday,  Hattabaugh told reporters he envisions teacher performance pay working much like principal pay:  If there's a 3 percent raise pool,  that doesn't mean everyone gets 3 percent.  A low performer might get nothing that year,  while a principal who meets all goals could get more  (lately, of course, that raise pool has dried up, too).

But,  as Hattabaugh quickly noted,  his gig as superintendent ends this summer.  It'll be up to the new leader to chart the path.