Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, or NEA, came out strongly against single-salary teacher-compensation systems at an Education Writers Association, or EWA, event held earlier this month in Chicago. “Let’s get rid of step and lane,” he declared. “I don’t like it.” Van Roekel’s comments about trading in one-size-fits-all salary schedules, long used by school districts in setting the pay of teachers, in favor of salaries based, at least in part, on teaching effectiveness reinforces the NEA’s reputation as a forward-thinking teachers union.
Step-and-lane pay scales, which tie teachers’ salary increases to years of experience and to the number of higher-education credits earned and degrees attained, have long been a hot topic of debate in education-reform circles. The step-and-lane pay scale was created to address inequities for teachers who were traditionally provided little in the way of salary, security, or fairness, by standardizing teacher pay.
As the teaching profession has evolved, however, the stagnant nature of step-and-lane pay scales must be reconsidered, as Van Roekel voiced.
Yeah, let's base teacher salaries on junk science like the APPR teacher evaluation system in NY State.
That's a swell idea.
They get rid of step and lane i ncreases and no teacher will ever get a raise anymore.
That the NEA president is calling for this shows you how out of touch the union leadership is.
I don't want to sound out of line here, however, this has got to be the biggest load of cr*p I have read in a long time. Now we have the NEA trying to sell us out on a basic civil service pay system? You have got to be kidding me? Who are these fools in the NEA hanging with? Are they getting actual kickbacks now from the ed-deform goons? It is beyond time for rank and file teachers to step up and get their union(s) and profession back to where it belongs. For the life of me, I have no concept how the NEA can possibly propose a concept such as what is in this article. If they really believe what they write and say, they will soon be missing a paycheck as the teaching profession and the union money that comes with it will sure to be history.
ReplyDeleteI think Van Roekel will be taken care of by the deformers - just the way the old D.C. union leader got a sweet gig with Michelle Rhee at Students First. These union "leaders" know how to land on their feet.
DeleteThey are the same as the idiots at the AFT. I do not know which teachers they represent, but it sure ain't me.
ReplyDeleteVan Roekel looking to rival Weingarten for #1 sell out status.
DeleteStunned and appalled to read this. This asshole needs to go.
ReplyDeleteMy reaction exactly when I saw it Thursday night.
DeleteAmazingly enough, I am not shocked at all, union leadership has been selling us and our sadly apothetic colleagues (and why I vote straight opposition tickets everytime) for at least the two decades I have been teaching.
ReplyDeleteI have seen a ot of sell outs as well. This one, though, essentially means teachers would never have a raise ever again. Because the so-called "performance-based mechanisms" they'll use to calculate "value" can easily be manipulated, as we have seen in Syracuse and Rochester.
DeleteThey represent the management team: Koch, Gates, Broad, Bloombucks, Murdoch and Michele Rhee.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly right - it's WWE wrestling and Van Roeklen, Randi, Dick Iannuzzi and Mikey Mulgrew are on the same team as Koch, Gates, Broad, Bloombucks, Murdoch and Michele Rhee. They just play like they're not when they're in public.
DeleteWhen I tell people the union "has my back" nowadays, I often point to the dagger handle protruding out of it.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great line, Pogue. Funny and yet, painful at the same time because it's so true.
DeleteOur NYSUT LRS rep sold my district a plan to get rid of our steps 5 years ago. The sheep in my district voted "yes"!
ReplyDeleteWe will never get these steps back, and we have not had a decent raise in 4 years. NYSUT has been selling us out for a very long time.
I have little doubt the next UFT contract is going to look a little like the Newark contract. I hope I'm wrong, though...
DeleteI am in Newark and I would not wish our contract on anybody. The argument was, "If we don't take this, we will have nothing." I kept saying, "Nothing is better than this." Weingarten had people calling us at home. I gave the guy who called me a piece of my mind.
ReplyDeleteI agree - I'd rather ten years of 0% than a couple of percentage points salary increase in a contract that blows up steps and lanes for good.
DeleteThis is a distortion of what Dennis said. Through a friend that researched it....
ReplyDeleteEarlier this month, President Van Roekel participated in a panel discussion at an Education Writers Association meeting and was asked about a broad range of topics, including teacher preparation, evaluation, compensation, and more. When asked about differentiated compensation, he did cite his frustration with step and lane schedules from the standpoint that school districts and legislatures have historically used them as a way to pay teachers less, not more.
He cited our openness to alternative ways to compensate teachers, but stressed that those systems must be adequately funded and ultimately raise all teacher salaries to be comparable with other professions requiring similar training, knowledge, and skills. When CAP posted their piece that referenced a piece of Dennis’s comments we asked them to adjust the story to not only reflect his complete quote but to clarify the NEA position on these issues. The story has been updated.
His complete quote was as follows: “Teachers unions didn’t create the step-and-lane,” Van Roekel said. He cited the fact that 95 percent of school districts use them “because it’s the cheapest way to pay a large group of people there is. … There’s a reason they did it.” Van Roekel expressed openness to differentiated compensation systems, but explained the complexity involved in trying to design them: “Let’s get rid of step-and-lane. I don’t like it. It forces people to work for peanuts when they start, and if you stay there 30 years, you get all the way to, depending on the state, $40,000, $70,000, or $80,000 … The first thing you have to decide on is what you differentiate the pay on? Is it skills and knowledge? Is it responsibility? And as soon as you decide that answer, you have to say: How will I measure it? If you can do those two things, then you can implement that system. … I am more than willing to look at alternative compensation systems. I don’t think we pay [teachers] enough when they start; we don’t pay them enough when they end. And there are a lot of different ways to differentiate, but I do know based on the work I’ve done for 20-some years, it will cost more money, and if you’re not willing to invest more into compensation systems, it’s a really difficult challenge to find a different way of paying [teachers].”
The link to the full audio of the Education Writers Association panel discussion is pasted below.
http://ec.libsyn.com/p/b/1/d/b1d79e3c7e011733/National_Overview_-_Evaluations_and_Equity.mp3?d13a76d516d9dec20c3d276ce028ed5089ab1ce3dae902ea1d01c08531d4cf5d0ef0&c_id=6274127
Please listen to the whole discussion and consider an update. Someone made a tweet based on one or two sentences that was part of a much larger statement in a panel discussion. DVR did not "come out against" step & lane; he simply explained why it exists.