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Wednesday, January 08, 2003

By Jane Elizabeth, Post-Gazette Education Writer

While Pennsylvania's public school teachers have the highest salaries in the nation, the state gets only a D+ for its efforts to improve teacher quality, according to a report released yesterday by Education Week.

	Graphic: Teacher 'report card'

The annual study, financed by Pew Charitable Trusts, judged each state on its regulations governing teacher licensing, qualifications and evaluations. Pennsylvania's score declined from last year's grade of C-.

The average Pennsylvania teacher earns $52,832 yearly, according to the report, which used salary figures from the American Federation of Teachers and adjusted them for inflation. The next highest average pay -- and the only other salary over $50,000 -- was $51,868 in Michigan.

Unlike other states that earned higher grades, Pennsylvania does not pay for training programs for new teachers or professional development programs in school districts.

And Pennsylvania doesn't have the strict requirements for assessing more experienced teachers that some states mandate, such as videotaping teachers' performance in the classroom and using evaluation teams to monitor teachers.

But the state lost ground this year primarily because researchers took a harder look at the colleges and universities that train the nation's teachers, according to research director Kathryn Doherty.

"Whether states hold teacher-training programs accountable" for their graduates was an important factor in the scoring, said Doherty.

Some states even offer a "warranty" on their teachers. If school districts are unhappy with a graduate of a state-supported college, the teacher will be sent back for more training at no cost to the district. Pennsylvania has no such accountability system, Doherty noted.

Under new federal regulations, states also must report any teacher-training programs that are doing a poor job of training teachers -- primarily based on the number of students who can't pass the teacher licensing test. While several Pennsylvania colleges have a large percentage of students who've flunked the test, none has been named yet as "low-performing," Doherty said.

The report also was critical of schools that employ teachers who aren't properly credentialed. While Pennsylvania has a lower percentage of unqualified teachers in the classroom, the state was criticized for having more of those improperly certified teachers in poor school districts than in wealthier school districts.

Pennsylvania also scored a D- in "resource equity," meaning that funds are distributed unevenly among school districts.

However, both Doherty and state officials said that next year, Pennsylvania's scores should be higher in some categories.

Most of Education Week's data was collected early last fall. But later in the year, the Pennsylvania Department of Education took steps to improve both teacher credentials and accountability.

The report's data is "a snapshot in time," said Education Department spokesman Jeff McCloud. But because of requirements in the federal No Child Left Behind law, the state is making ongoing "adjustments" in teacher quality requirements, he said.

"A D+, I don't think, does justice to teachers in Pennsylvania or the level of Pennsylvania's teacher quality," said McCloud.

Wythe Keever, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said the Quality Counts report "does not take into account the very decentralized nature of education in Pennsylvania."

While the state does not pay for training programs for new teachers, for instance, some local school districts do finance them because boards and unions negotiate it.

The full report can be found at www.edweek.org.