Report Rips State On Teacher Quality Officials Say Washington Taking Steps To Improve

A national study grading teacher quality flunked Idaho and gave Washington a D-minus.

Education officials in both states say the report, released Wednesday by the national education newspaper Education Week, fails to give the states credit for ongoing efforts to strengthen their teaching forces.

The report, titled “Quality Counts 2000,” concludes that states overall fall short when it comes to attracting, screening and keeping good teachers.

The 50 states received an average C grade in their efforts to improve teacher quality.

Idaho, along with three other failing states, had the worst rating of all - an F. Washington was close to the bottom with a ranking of 46th.

The report found that nearly all states have loopholes that allow people to enter teaching who lack even basic skills. It also concluded that states are even less stringent when it comes to ensuring that teachers know the subjects they teach.

“With the nation needing to hire about 2 million teachers in the next decade, states must make sure that the people who take those jobs are qualified to teach to the higher standards now expected of students,” Virginia Edwards, editor of Quality Counts 2000, said in a prepared statement.

Washington and Idaho are among the 11 states that do not require a basic skills test for teaching candidates. They also are among 19 states lacking any requirement to assess the performance of new teachers.

However, Washington lawmakers will be considering a teacher testing proposal this legislative session. It is being pushed by Gov. Gary Locke and state schools Superintendent Terry Bergeson.

“This is the third time the superintendent has a proposal before the Legislature to fund teacher testing for beginning teachers,” said Marc Frazer, spokesman for Washington’s superintendent’s office. “(Quality Counts 2000) is a good report, and it highlights exactly where we need to go with education in Washington.”

But he noted it is just a snapshot in time, and fails to take into consideration other efforts being developed to improve teacher quality, such as a revamped teacher certification process that aligns teacher training with the state’s higher academic standards.

Likewise, Idaho state schools Superintendent Marilyn Howard said that because improvement initiatives are in the works, “Idaho actually deserves a grade of `incomplete.”’ Idaho education leaders say the state already is taking steps to ensure beginning teachers are better prepared in college, better supported in the classroom and better paid for their work.

Also contributing to the low marks in Washington and Idaho is the fact that neither state requires middle-school teachers to be endorsed in a subject area. Though the two states’ high school teachers do have subject-specific certificates, they are often assigned to teach classes outside of their field.

For example, more than 50 percent of Washington and Idaho math teachers didn’t major in math, the report shows.

Some of the findings don’t apply to Spokane School District 81, which has the luxury of having far more qualified teacher applicants than jobs available, District 81 Superintendent Gary Livingston said.

He said that all of District 81’s high school teachers, for example, are teaching within their field.

The study also found a high attrition rate among new teachers, with the academically gifted being the most likely to leave the profession.

The report says that nearly one in five teachers leave the profession after three years. New teachers who scored the highest on college-entrance exams were twice as likely to leave.

“At every step of the way, the less academically able chose teaching,” the report says.

The study reveals a growing pay gap between teachers and other college-educated professionals, which widens as teachers get older.

Teachers in their 20s earn on average $22,700 a year, about $8,000 less than college graduates of the same age in other fields. The gap is worse for teachers from ages 44 to 50, who earn on average $39,000, about $24,000 less than others outside of teaching.

Washington and Idaho also are among the states that do not offer any incentives or bonuses to attract highly qualified teachers.

However, Washington schools chief Bergeson wants to reward good teachers. She plans to ask lawmakers this session to pay a 15 percent bonus to teachers who achieve National Board Certification.

Lawmakers in Idaho, meanwhile, will consider Howard’s proposal for a 5.2percent increase in the share of teacher salaries that the state finances.

“As we look at improving the profession, salary issues will be a key piece, but not the only piece,” Howard said Wednesday in a prepared statement.

Quality Counts 2000 is Education Week’s fourth annual state-by-state look at public K-12 education.

While this year’s report focused on teacher quality, Quality Counts also assesses how states are doing in other categories.

On the bright side, Idaho’s grade on “standards and accountability” improved to a C from last year’s D. Washington maintained a C-plus in the category.

Wendy Harris can be reached at (509) 459-5433 or by e-mail at wendyh@spokesman.com.

ONLINE The report is available on the Web at: www.edweek.org/sreports/qc

The Associated Press contributed to this report.