Poverty firmly linked to inferior performance in school, but some schools buck trend

Unions at issue

In many cases, school officials believe that money will help make the difference.

The American Association of School Administrators is pushing a federal tax credit for qualified teachers and principals who agree to work at struggling schools.
"We are convinced you can't close the achievement gap until you get good teachers to the kids who have the most problems," said Cynthia Price, the association's issues analysis director.

Research by Price and others show that across the country, school districts are embracing new ways to attract and retain high-quality teachers:

- Florida gives qualified teachers bonuses of up to $3,500 to work in the state's low-performing schools. And the state will use $10 million in federal grants over the next five years to recruit and train midcareer professionals to work in hard-to-staff schools.

- North Carolina pays secondary-school teachers certified in math, science and special education bonuses of nearly $2,000 to teach at high-poverty or low-performing schools.

- Connecticut gives low-interest mortgages to certified teachers who work in high-poverty school districts.

But some of these efforts were launched just as the states began grappling with serious budget shortfalls.

In California, for instance, the state's budget crunch forced lawmakers to scrap a $98 million program that provided bonuses to recruit and keep certified teachers in low-performing schools.

Some school administrators say union contracts are to blame for the prevalence of inexperienced and unskilled teachers at high-minority and poor schools because the contracts give senior teachers greater say in where they work. They also say those contracts limit a school's ability to fire bad teachers and to pay teachers based on merit rather than seniority.

A principal can't select a teacher and say, "This is the best damn English teacher in the state of Florida, and he's worth $5,000 more than the guy next door to him," said Ronnie Arnold, a spokesman for the public school system in Pensacola, Fla. "Can't do that. The union wants everybody to be treated the same."

Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, said administrators too often want to blame unions.

"A graphic example is they will say that they cannot get rid of teachers because of the union," he said. "That is absolute crap."

National union leaders like Weaver say they are open to more flexible transfer policies and are willing to support financial incentives to attract qualified teachers to low-performing schools.

NEA officials pointed to a groundbreaking 1997 contract in Seattle in which the local affiliate and school district did away with seniority in hiring decisions. And in cities like Rochester, N.Y., and Boston, unions have negotiated contracts that tie pay to performance.

Class sizes blamed

But unions say the teacher inequity problem is bigger than seniority and salaries.

Large class sizes, poor working conditions and a lack of support from administrators drive teachers away from high-poverty rural and inner-city schools, Weaver said.

"Teachers can turn it around with help," he said. "But I do not want to put teachers in the position of being the only ones that have that responsibility. They can't do it by themselves."

Both Weaver and Sandra Feldman, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said schools that serve poor and minority children need more financial assistance.
Research shows that some schools serving poor children are shortchanged financially. A recent study of 49 states by The Education Trust found that school districts with high numbers of low-income and minority students receive substantially less state and local money per pupil than school districts with few poor and minority children.

Money matters, school officials in Pueblo, Colo., agree. But how it's spent is just as important.

For years, the school district spent about $500,000 in federal money annually to pay teachers' assistants to work in Pueblo's classrooms. Four years ago, the district abandoned the practice and removed 52 teachers' aides — who needed only a high school diploma to work at schools — from teaching duties.

"The teacher's aide was often the teacher of reading," said Superintendent Joyce Bales. "We wanted a qualified teacher doing that."

The school district's focus on teacher training is working. In the past five years, Pueblo has witnessed a 15 percent increase in third-grade students who are reading proficiently. Among Hispanics, there's been a 22 percent increase.

Said Owen: "I can go to bed every night, knowing we've done everything we can do to get these kids up to speed."

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