3-Tiered Teacher System Never Tied to Students

I would like to comment on two recent Journal articles that addressed two important issues in K-12 public education that are currently being discussed and debated in New Mexico and beyond.

Regarding the Nov. 16 Journal article “Teacher Pay Plan Failed to Hike Scores,” I feel obliged to point out that the headline is not only deceiving but is based on a premise that is entirely false. The three-tiered system was never, ever about raising student test scores. In fact, as the Journal itself has aptly pointed out on numerous occasions, including in this article, student test scores correlate more closely with demographic factors such as family income, home language and parents’ level of educational attainment than they do with a teacher’s location on the three-tier professional scale.

Instead, the system was designed to encourage good teachers to stay in New Mexico instead of fleeing to other states where they could receive better pay for the same work.

Some experts have characterized this exodus as hemorrhaging. Today, this hemorrhaging has slowed dramatically due in large part to the three-tiered system.

The system was also designed to recognize and compensate teachers for their voluntary and selfless efforts, funded primarily by their own modest salaries, to improve their teaching knowledge and skills by earning advanced degrees, becoming instructional leaders in their schools, or by seeking certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

In nearly all respects and by nearly all measures, the three-tiered system has not only accomplished its goals, it has exceeded them.

As for the article titled “Science Returns to Classroom” that appeared in the Journal the following day, I believe it is important for your readers to know that, despite enormous administrative pressure on teachers to stop teaching science and social studies during the dark ages of No Child Left Behind — a law that was relentless in its efforts to mandate an ill-advised and ill-conceived plan to raise math and reading scores — thousands of teachers in New Mexico and elsewhere not only defied this pressure but redoubled their efforts to deliver quality science and social studies lessons to their students anyway.

Unlike the teacher mentioned in the article, most of the defiant teachers remain unrecognized for their courage and dedication. They are to be commended not only for their efforts to defy administrative pressure to violate state law, but also for their ability to do so while maintaining strong moral, ethical, pedagogical and professional values.

Their students, their schools and all of us who have even the most remote stake in public education should thank them for doing so.

David A. Wilson is a tier-3 teacher and a school representative for the American Federation of Teachers.