National Board Certified Teachers could get bonuses
This is good news for the state’s National Board Certified teachers: Some key folks in the General Assembly want to restore their bonuses.
Some states are debating whether a salary boost for National Board Certified teachers is a good investment, suggesting that bonuses might better go to teachers with proven track records of raising student achievement rather than to teachers who earn the certification. Sometimes, they are one and the same. Sometimes, they are not.
Georgia has been a leader in urging teachers to seek certification ever since ex Gov. Roy Barnes became impressed with the program. (He continues to be a national champion of it.)
I have interviewed Georgia teachers who said the certification process was grueling and a few who said it was a cinch. I have been impressed with the certified teachers I have met, although I can’t speak to their records of increasing student achievement.
According to the AJC story:
The session begins Jan. 11, about five months after educators who had earned certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards began seeing smaller paychecks because of state budget cuts.
The Professional Association of Georgia Educators, the state’s largest teachers group, sued the state over the reduction in pay supplements in October, arguing that lawmakers had no right to cut the 10 percent supplements that board-certified teachers had been promised.
House Rules Chairman Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) agrees, and he thinks the General Assembly will restore the supplements during the session.
“Legally, it is an obligation,” he said. “I think you’re going to see the House Appropriations Committee make the decision to put it [supplement money] back in. Everybody we obligated it to needs to be paid.”
Seeking reductions to balance the state budget last spring, lawmakers cut the supplements almost in half, costing many nationally certified teachers $3,000 to $4,000. For a lot of teachers, that was on top of furloughs and pay cuts local districts implemented.
Jolinda Collins, a nationally certified language arts teacher at Brookwood High School in Gwinnett County, said she understands the state’s fiscal situation.
Because of falling tax revenue during the recession, lawmakers have slashed the state budget about $3 billion in the past year or so. More will be cut during the upcoming session.
Still, Collins said, “To force teachers to take serious pay cuts in this way is disrespectful and unacceptable, especially when some state employees get a bonus.
“Suddenly losing 10 percent of my income that I have depended on for eight years has been difficult. Combined with three days of furlough that we’ve had so far, it’s devastating. My paychecks since August are $450 less than in July.
“I guess the governor and legislators don’t know what it’s like to earn so little money that a 10 percent loss creates a crisis in the household.”
Teachers who earn national board certification in Georgia have been getting salary supplements for more than a decade. They say they were promised a 10 percent pay supplement if they went through the arduous certification process, which can take more than a year and costs $2,500.
So let’s discuss: Is this a good incentive program or should bonuses go to teachers whose students show the greatest growth year to year?
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62 comments Add your comment
One dedicated teacher
December 30th, 2009
2:08 pm
I am a Nationally Board Certified Teacher with many other degrees, inculding two masters, an ed.s and all the course work for a doctorate.. This certification is the only certification or “degree” that necessitates that you demonstrate and produce student achievement as part of the certification process. Since only 20% of the teachers who begin this most rigorous process achieve certification, you can bet that these teachers get results!! I assure you that if you are only interested in increasing your monthy salary, getting a masters, ed.s., or doctoate is a much easier way to get money. Plus, once you get these degrees, you no longer have to prove anything, nor do you have to “demonstrate student achievement.” The NBCT process is not only rigorus, but it is examination of your work and success with students on a national scale with the best and the brightest in the the field looking over what you do and how you do it in the classroom. I am saddened and repulsed by the lack of proper research done by the GA. governor as to the gains made by teachers who achieve NBCT. If Georgia wants better teachers, tell them to go through the National Board process. It is a wonderul way of weeding out those who can and do from those who can and don’t ,or those who cannot! Reinstate our supplement 100% as promise.
Shannon, M.Div.
December 30th, 2009
5:02 pm
Bottom line: teachers were told that if they went through this certification, their pay would increase a certain amount.
The *only* question is whether *future* teachers should be given the increase in pay. Not to give it to the teachers to whom it was promised is flat out wrong.
Uncle Commode
December 31st, 2009
11:02 am
No pay increase of bonus for these teacher as they have life to easy as it is.
What we need is more FIRINGS of these malcontents. No lay-of, no furlough just a good ole fashioned FIRING!!!
Uncle Commode
December 31st, 2009
11:02 am
“Bottom line: teachers were told that if they went through this certification, their pay would increase a certain amount.”
NO…that is a lie!
Uncle Commode
December 31st, 2009
11:04 am
equal treatment for all
December 29th, 2009
8:58 pm
Usually the very persons using such silly names as “equal treatment for all” are the very LOSERS who occupy societys lowest rung and deservedly so.
Stop complaining and GET TO WORK!
MsCrabtree
December 31st, 2009
1:40 pm
Uncle Commode, I suspect you couldn’t cut it as a National Board Teacher. Your posts ring loud and clear as sour grapes. Grow up and have a Happy New Year.
ScienceTeacher671
December 31st, 2009
8:04 pm
Uncle Commode, I suspect that if there were a surplus of talented teachers, the malingering malcontents of which you speak would have been fired long ago, or not hired at all.
Have you thought of applying for a teaching position?
Connie
January 1st, 2010
7:09 pm
Read Tony’s comment. It the best response concerning the NBPTS certificaiton raise for GA educators I’ve seen.
catlady
January 4th, 2010
2:38 pm
I believe the state and its fiscal agents, the BOEs, should have to honor the contracts they entered into last spring, WHATEVER those contracts called for. I find it nearly impossible to believe that last spring the governor and legislators did not realize that the “economic downturn” would continue to have an effect on state coffers, and that they needed to adjust the salary schedule and/or work schedule at that time, BEFORE teachers signed a contract that THEY have to keep but the state does not. If they did not foresee this, then the highly paid economic forecasters in the state government should have all been fired immediately. I could well have gone “across the line” (I live close enough to TN or NC to commute there to teach) if I had known my TRUE salary. The state and its fiscal agents should not be allowed to breach contracts with impunity!
I am not aware of a single teacher in our system who has national board certification, but 80% have at least a master’s from No Name U, where you can buy a master’s for about $4000, I think.
BTW, I asked this earlier, but have any other teachers had money deducted from their monthly pay for furlough days not yet taken?
Scarlett
February 5th, 2010
9:54 pm
This week I finally understood that continuing to teach in a Georgia public school is no longer an option for me. In spite of still having a few more good years left, I have been strongly encouraged to retire by receiving one pay cut after another, leaving me with a net retirement salary that is more attractive than my usual state pay minus my expenses. Should I really work for peanuts or do I consider my abilities to be a bit more valuable? With humility, I present to you an awesome resume inclusive of earning the most prestigious educational and community awards. However,in order to place these accomplishments into a proper perspective, I declare that my success would have been impossible without the success of my students. As teachers we are constantly bombarded with comments that reflect the importance of our profession. Indeed, it is on the shoulders of education that futures are erected and now the future of Georgia Public education, itself, appears grim. I predict that as many other experienced teachers evaluate the situation in which our politicians have demoted us, they will decide to leave education rather than unduly stress their own families by association with an employer having such little regard for their welfare. Can we afford to lose the most experienced educators in our children’s classrooms? Will younger teachers continue to survive without these mentors or will they also leave the classroom in search of a less stressful situation and reasonable pay?
ignicleediste
February 9th, 2010
11:25 pm
As the case may be the most compelling sunless tanning products I’ve heard about are lotions and sprays containing dihydroxyacetone (DHA) as the acting ingredient.
Apparently the sugar interacts with the dead skin cells, a color change-over occurs. This change as a rule lasts close to five to seven days from the original application.
I’m honestly wondering if anyone can point me in the correctt direction as to the best and cheapest option that’s known to work. I really don’t need to end up all Orange.
Marian
April 28th, 2010
10:21 pm
Most of you are commenting about National Board Certification, and you lack the background, knowledge and intelligence to make any comment whatsoever. Your comments are not grounded in theoretical research that indicates that National Board Certification does in fact help raise test scores. Likewise, if you studied the politics of this state, you would know that when the Governor changed from Democrat to Republican, the governor wanted to create his own “method” of “Master Teachers”. As a teacher that has received many national accolades, I refused to apply. When a teacher with 3 years experience can be named a “Master Teacher” because the classification is only based on test scores, and not on teaching, pedagogy, parent contact and professional responsibilities, it is appararent that the problem is a political one.
If you get on a research site, and find peer reviewed literature, you will find the current leaders in education that are recognized in a montage of areas are proponents of National Board Certification. Georgia is indicating that it is a backwards state in its decision to rescind the pay that was given to these teachers.