• By WILL SENTELL
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Sep 11, 2009 - Page: 1A

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Louisiana would be justified in scrapping the way it pays public school teachers because current salaries are disconnected from student achievement, a national expert said Thursday.

State educators, fueled by a $25,000 national grant, are in the early stages of devising a new way to pay teachers to make them more effective and to aid students.

Tabitha Grossman, a veteran educator and policy analyst with a wing of the National Governors Association, called NGA, said teacher pay is usually tied to years in the classroom and advanced degrees.

But after yearly improvements in initial years teachers rarely change after five years on the job, Grossman said.

“Once we get to year five the teacher is essentially going to continue to teach that way,” she said.

Grossman said advanced degrees, the other common link to higher teacher pay, generally has no relation to how students perform in school.

“We know that getting a degree is not related to student achievement,” she said.

Grossman made her comments to the Blue Ribbon Commission for Educational Excellence, which includes teachers, principals, state education administrators and teacher union representatives.

Some of the state’s key recent changes in public school operations began in the commission.

Grossman and others stressed that, unless teachers back the pay change push, it will fail.

“If you don’t get teacher buy-in from the very beginning it won’t work,” she said.

Glenny Lee Buquet of Houma, co-chairwoman of the panel, made the same point.

“Teachers must own this reform or it is not sustainable,” said Buquet, who is also a veteran member of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

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