With Walpole High School now considered one of the 50 best high schools in the state, there is even more motivation for Walpole school administrators to implement all that is necessary to improve Walpole High’s rankings. The new PLC program, being lauded as an innovative way for Walpole teachers to collaborate on their lessons, is a step towards boosting Walpole High’s MCAS and SAT scores even more. But, Walpole school administrators should not stop there. With so little money available in the school budget this year, the Walpole school system should explore opportunities for boosting student achievement by implementing reforms in the way teachers are paid and allocated among classes. Those opportunities can translate into more money in the future to hire and keep talented teachers, which will undoubtedly improve Walpole High’s ranking in the long run.
A major way that the Walpole school system may be able to cut costs this year in an innovative way without negatively impacting student performance is by implementing what US Education Secretary Arne Duncan calls “smartly targeted increases in class sizes.” A commonly held perception that school educators and parents in Walpole and elsewhere have believed for decades is that lower class sizes translate into higher student achievement. But Duncan, in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute in November, criticized this long-held philosophy, saying “one of the most expensive assumptions embedded in school budgets is the belief that reducing class sizes improves student achievement.” According to Duncan, who had been hailed for his work turning around struggling public schools in Chicago before joining the Obama administration, smaller class sizes have not correlated with higher student performance, as evidenced by states like California spending billions to reduce class sizes with no meaningful improvement in student achievement. In fact, countries that are ahead of the US in terms of academics have classes that are far larger than in the US.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, for example, South Korea and Japan, home to two of the best education systems in the world, consistently average between 33 and 36 students per class in secondary schools, while primary schools there have slightly smaller classes. Duncan told the AEI that teachers in those two countries sometimes request larger classes because they believe a greater distribution of students and skill levels can improve learning.
However, even while he downplayed the concerns about larger classes, Duncan did state that smaller classes can work better in elementary schools, while higher grades may not have as much to worry about. Nevertheless, Duncan confirmed the growing body of evidence that school districts like Walpole can cut costs by increasing class sizes in certain grades and departments without negatively affecting students. If nothing else, the evidence showing that smaller class sizes are not necessarily beneficial for students should be enough reason for the Walpole school district to not be afraid to cut teachers in order to save money.
Besides worrying less about maintaing smaller class sizes, Duncan also suggests school districts like Walpole could see potential cost-savings in reforming what he calls “antiquated compensation systems” for teachers. Currently teachers in Walpole, and in many other school districts around the country, earn longevity pay based on their years of service to the town. But, there have been numerous studies that indicate longevity pay for teachers is not necessarily improving teacher quality. Microsoft Founder Bill Gates, who spoke to the Council of Chief State School Officers in November, echoed those studies. “We’re paying anywhere from a quarter to a third of teacher compensation for seniority and master’s degrees,” Gates said. “What you don’t see is a component that ties compensation to workload or results,” he continued. While teachers get extra pay for their years of service, there does not appear to be any evidence that those same teachers are any better than their younger and more inexperienced colleagues. “Seniority is the single most expensive teacher-contract provision,” Gates asserted. With so little money available in the Walpole school district, Walpole school administrators should heed Gates’ advice. Teachers are needlessly being rewarded for seniority when younger teachers, who may be higher-quality, are not getting rewarded for their performance.
Furthermore, while teachers, including in Walpole, have long been rewarded with higher pay for attaining master’s degrees, there is evidence that teachers who further their own education are not necessarily more effective in the classroom. A recent study by the Center on Reinventing Education at the University of Washington revealed some surprising results regarding the true effect of teachers earning masters degrees. According to the study, 90% of teachers’ masters degrees are in education, and not in subjects like English or Mathematics. Thus, teachers are not necessarily any better at the subject matter they teach when they attain their master’s degrees. In addition, another study conducted by the same organization in 1997 showed that students of teachers with master’s degrees do not statistically do any better than students taught by teachers without those degrees. Walpole High currently pays teachers more money to get their master’s degrees, but with such compelling evidence indicating that those higher salaries are not translating into a better school system, now is the opportune time to examine these teacher benefits.
A major criterion used by Boston magazine to consider this year’s school rankings was how much each school district spends per pupil, and what the student-teacher ratio is. While the student-teacher ratio will undoubtedly be higher if class sizes were to increase, the Walpole school system can capitalize on increasing per-pupil spending and hiring more teachers by cutting costs for seniority and master’s degrees.
Walpole High can not afford to continue spending money on strategies to boost student achievement that do not necessarily work — like lower class sizes and higher pay for teachers with master’s degrees. But with ample opportunity to improve Walpole’s ranking with Boston magazine, Walpole administrators must consider cutting costs and initiating reforms.
