Report: Less experienced teachers go to schools with higher poverty levels

from My West Texas

Ruth Campbell
Midland Reporter-Telegram

Report: Less experienced teachers go to schools with higher poverty levels

MISD official says the district tries to find the best teachers for the job.

A report issued by a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, shows less experienced teachers in Texas go to higher poverty/higher minority schools, while those with more experience go to campuses with fewer minorities and more wealth.

The report, compiled by Education Trust, a nonprofit whose mission is to lift all students to higher achievement, centers on Texas' 50 largest districts, including Midland ISD. It focuses primarily on larger urban areas and uses data from the 2005-06 school year.

MISD has an average of 49.1 percent economically disadvantaged students, compared to the state average of 55 percent, MISD Executive Director for Human Resources Melva Cardenas said.

"In comparison to the largest school districts, MISD does an equitable job of utilizing experienced and inexperienced teachers to serve across all demographics," Midland Classroom Teachers Association President Frank Subia said.

"One of the negating factors is all school districts are having a difficult time retaining highly qualified teachers to meet the needs of student performance," Subia added.

Cardenas said the district tries to make sure inequities don't happen in teacher placement.

"We're going to do what we can to hire the best teacher for the job," she said. "Principals make every effort to try to have a balance of different levels of experience. We have a real diverse population across the district," Cardenas said.

Along with less experienced teachers going to higher poverty/high minority schools, the report said there is a difference in pay between them and teachers in lower poverty/lower minority schools. Inexperienced teachers, according to the report, are those with zero to three years on the job.

The study shows the pay differential between the highest and lowest poverty schools is $1,055 per teacher per year and $901 in the highest and lowest minority MISD elementary schools.

The pay difference between middle school teachers at the highest and lowest poverty schools is $205 more per year and between the highest and lowest minority schools $765 less per year.

At Midland high schools, teachers in the highest poverty and highest minority schools get $1,444 less per year more than those at schools with fewer minorities and lower poverty, the report shows.

Cardenas said teachers are all paid on the same salary schedule. First-year teachers with a bachelor's degree make $38,800 a year and salaries go up according to years on the job.

She said the district offers stipends based on "critical shortage areas, (but) not necessarily based on whether they're teaching at a high poverty/high minority school."

Fewer experienced teachers are found in schools with higher minority and poorer populations.

In MISD, the report said 9.87 percent of teachers with less than three years of experience are in schools with the lowest poverty, compared to 12.23 percent in the highest poverty schools, 8.76 percent in schools with the lowest minority population and lowest poverty level.

"On average, teachers in the first couple of years are not as effective as those with more experience. Yet Hispanic, African-American and low-income students are assigned new teachers," said Heather Peske, director of teacher quality at the Education Trust.

Texas American Federation of Teachers Communications Director Rob D'Amico said the report sounds "dead on" to him.

"Unfortunately, almost two-thirds of teachers are teaching outside their expertise in schools that are low performing. One-fifth are teaching outside their expertise in schools that are doing well," D'Amico said.

The good news, however, is Texas children have made substantial gains in academic achievements the last 10-15 years, said Education Trust President Kati Haycock.

"All groups of kids are performing significantly higher in Texas today than they were earlier and also are significantly higher than their counterparts in other states. There remain enormous gaps separating low-income kids from others and African-American and Hispanic kids from others," Haycock said.

"The gaps you see begin before poverty or language issues, so already they arrive at school behind," she said. "So rather than assign them to most qualified teachers, the 50 largest districts do the opposite."

At Dallas ISD, Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said a pilot program has started to attract teachers to the most needy schools.

"We're calling our transformation process Dallas Achieves. The first ring is highly engaged students, but second ring is to have effective teachers. The goal of Dallas Achieves is to become the best school district in the United States by 2020," Hinojosa said.

Paul Ruiz, senior advisor at EdTrust Southwest in San Antonio, said one of the advantages of what Dallas is doing is not just paying teachers more who produce good results at high-poverty schools.

"They've built a structure where teachers whose results are not as good can learn from teachers whose results are better," Ruiz said.

D'Amico of TAFT in Austin said teacher pay has to be raised before talking about incentives.

In 2006-07, the average annual teacher salary in Texas was $45,971 and the national average for 2004-05, the most recent data available, is $47,607. West Texas' average teacher salary -- including Ector County, Lubbock, Abilene, Amarillo and San Angelo ISDs -- is $39,760.