Rewarding Can-Do Teachers

Teachers should be rewarded for outstanding achievements. California’s new education incentive program will soon do just that, providing bonuses to educators at schools whose students rank in the bottom half on the state Academic Performance Index yet show impressive improvement in standardized test scores.

Test scores have jumped significantly over the last two years at more than 1,300 underperforming schools. The new rankings were released Thursday. Teachers and administrators are eligible for individual rewards of $5,000 to $25,000 when their students more than double the state-set goal for improvement on the API, which is based on Stanford 9 test scores. About 12,000 teachers and administrators will receive performance stipends under the $100-million state allocation program. All who are eligible certainly deserve the bonuses, especially those who work where the challenges are most difficult--in overcrowded, year-round, inner-city campuses, where many students are poor and just learning English.

At Commonwealth Avenue Elementary School, west of downtown, Vice Principal Germaine England attributes the school’s impressive showing to a steady, years-long emphasis on the basics, tutoring, teacher preparation and development, parental involvement and high expectations. Test scores rose most dramatically for the second and fifth grades.

Shana Handy’s second-grade students at Commonwealth have made the highest test scores in the school for the last three years. Her classroom average topped the 60th percentile in reading last year and the 93rd percentile in math in a class with students who spoke seven languages: English, Spanish, Cantonese, Korean, Arabic, Tagalog and Bengali.

At Normont Elementary School in Harbor City, Principal Steven L. Smith and his teachers work collegially. The results--strong growth in reading scores and increases in math. Annandale Elementary School in Highland Park topped the rankings among Los Angeles Unified School District campuses. Students, from those on the brink of failure to the highest achievers, progressed in every grade.

Here’s how it works at Annandale. Before the bell rings, mentor teacher Margaret Reyes tutors children. She then teaches a pre-kindergarten class that prepares Spanish speakers to read in English. After school, Reyes tutors third-graders and fifth-graders in reading. She also assists other teachers in the district. That’s what it takes, and the experience of Reyes and other award-winning teachers needs to be transmitted to others, without permanently removing them from the classroom. That’s the challenge for principals and administrators.

Hats off to these schools and their dedicated teachers, who earned every penny of their rewards.