Union leaders have been resisting efforts by the Los Angeles Unified School District to change the way teachers are compensated. But a new report by the National Council on Teacher Quality essentially backs the LAUSD's approach to the problem, urging the district to get rid of automatic pay increases and incremental pay for graduate credits earned by teachers.
The report, commissioned by the United Way of Greater Los Angeles and a host of other local groups, including the Urban League, notes that the district devotes about 25 percent of its payroll, some $519 million, to incremental pay earned by teachers for taking graduate courses, though there is no research correlating graduate course work with better teaching. Instead, the report urged that the district devote the money to pay teachers whose students perform well. The report also recommends making it easier to fire teachers, including those teachers who have been let go by one school and are unable to find a job elsewhere in the system. And the report urged lengthening the time it takes teachers to earn tenure.
The teachers' union denounced the report as "emblematic of an ineffective corporate-style, market-driven approach to education," the Los Angeles Times reports.
The teachers' union denounced the report as "emblematic of an ineffective corporate-style, market-driven approach to education," the Los Angeles Times reports.
Join the conversation