Teacher Michael Goode hands out class schedules to students in the school cafeteria before they head to their classrooms on the first day of school for the McLain 7th Grade Academy in Tulsa. MICHAEL WYKE / Tulsa World file
An open letter to Wayne Greene, the Tulsa World:
I am writing in regard to your column on merit pay for teachers ("What will taxpayers get for their $2,000," Sept. 1).
I currently serve as the vice president of the Tulsa Classroom Teachers Association. When my members came to me, insulted and distraught by what you wrote, I encouraged them to invite you to spend a day in their classrooms.
One of my members did exactly that and your very snarky reply to her had the phrase "merit pay" in it three times.
Mr. Greene, I worked with the administration of Tulsa Public Schools for the entire summer of 2009 when they were a semi-finalist for the Gates Foundation Grant. Our association risked alienating some of our members by helping to create and agreeing to what would have been an optional bonus program for teachers.
Some of the brightest minds from around the country worked for months to help us come to a fair way to pay teachers whose students showed growth and who volunteered to work in our most challenging schools. When the district didn't make the finals, it became a moot point because there was no way Tulsa Public Schools could fund the kind of bonuses that would make opting in attractive.
Ferguson-Palmer
You see, "merit pay" isn't as easy as it sounds. How does one determine the merit of a teacher? Do we use standardized tests? Not all subjects and grades are tested. Is the kindergarten teacher who wipes tears and soothes fears less deserving than the AP physics teacher? Is the teacher in a self-contained autism classroom able to show on a test what she accomplishes with her students all day? Is the drama teacher who spends hours away from her own children and empties her own house to stage a play with no budget any less deserving than the calculus teacher?
Sadly, not all teachers are effective in the classroom. TCTA collaborated with TPS to create a new teacher evaluation system which is now used by most of the districts in the state. We want more than anyone for our profession to be one of the best and the brightest but how do we attract the best and the brightest to a profession where they'll never be able to pay off their student loan debt?
How do we encourage our most promising young people to enter a career whose members are continuously disrespected and bashed in the media by people such as yourself? If there are bad teachers, it's because their administrators aren't evaluating them and offering them remediation.
If there are bad teachers, it's because the profession has become so unattractive that we have a continual shortage in Tulsa Public Schools and I've heard the phrase "warm body" used more than anyone would have liked to hear.
It's easy - and popular - to blame teachers and teacher unions for what is wrong with America's public schools. What is wrong with America's public schools is the lack of support and faith from the very people who should be crying from the rooftops for teachers and students to have all of the resources they deserve including the energy and time that many teachers have to devote to a second job instead of becoming more effective in their classrooms.
I'll be happy to discuss merit pay with you after we lift the profession from the curb to which society has kicked it. Until then, make time in your busy schedule to spend one week - just one week - walking in the shoes of Tulsa teachers. If you aren't willing to do that, then you need to stop writing about teachers.
Do your homework, Mr. Greene.
Patti Ferguson-Palmer is vice president of the Tulsa Classroom Teachers Association.
Reader Forum
The incarceration rate in Oklahoma is among the highest in the nation with approximately 26,000 people behind bars at any given time.
The Nov. 28, 2008, Tulsa World published my Readers Forum piece, "Antietam," in which I reported on a visit my then-8-year-old grandson, Stevie, and I made to Antietam battlefield in rural Maryland.
