The Anne Arundel County public school system has proposed an unusual approach to inspiring improvement: paying bonuses to bring teachers into struggling schools and to reward them when their schools meet requirements of a new federal law.
Superintendent Eric J. Smith, who included the incentives in his budget, which was presented last night to the county school board, sees the approach as a way to attract and keep veteran teachers at schools that consistently have had high turnover rates and less experienced staffs.
"If we're to achieve the requirements of No Child Left Behind [Act] . . . we have to have a well-trained, dedicated staff that is dedicated to staying in the school for the long term," Smith said. "Our expectation is [the incentives] will help."
Sheila Finlayson, president of the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County, called the proposal a "creative way of trying to recruit teachers," but insisted that any changes in how teachers are compensated should be negotiated. She said she believed that teachers working at schools that are not at-risk should not be forgotten.
"I'm glad to see he values teachers, but I'd like to see all teachers valued," she said.
National studies, as well as data that Smith collected in Anne Arundel, show that struggling schools, particularly those serving low-income populations, have fewer experienced teachers and that they quickly lose veteran instructors to campuses in more affluent neighborhoods.
For the past five years, Maryland has paid teachers who work at 350 poorly performing schools an extra $2,000. Fairfax County pays teachers more to work at certain lower performing schools by lengthening the school day.
Under the Anne Arundel proposal, the school system would spend $323,000 on new incentives for teachers at the six schools that have not hit state improvement targets -- called "annual yearly progress" -- for two years or more.
Under the No Child Left Behind Act, schools that fail to meet annual yearly progress two straight years can be forced to allow students to transfer out. Schools that miss the targets for several years can ultimately face state takeover.
To attract teachers to Anne Arundel's struggling schools, the school system would offer new teachers a $500 signing bonus, increase the salary offered to recruits with at least 20 years' experience and arrange for tuition reimbursement for teachers interested in earning graduate degrees in needed subjects. In addition, if a school met annual yearly progress between 2004 and 2005, every certified employee would receive another bonus, which is being negotiated but that could amount to $1,000 to $2,000.
Those incentives also would be offered to teachers who come to Anne Arundel to teach special education math and other subjects that are considered in critical need of instructors.
"The availability of highly qualified employees is becoming more challenging and the needs of our schools are becoming more challenging," said Synthia Shilling, assistant superintendent in Anne Arundel. "I think we need to think outside of the box and go outside of what we used to do."
The proposal was included in Smith's $671.8 million operating plan for the 2005 fiscal year that seeks $38.6 million in increases over the current fiscal year and a 6.1 percent increase over the past year. The proposed budget also seeks a 3 percent cost-of-living increase and step and longevity raises for all Anne Arundel teachers.
Smith, who came to Anne Arundel in July 2002 with an ambitious set of goals to reform the school system, also has proposed spending $6.6 million to continue the initiatives he brought to the county, including spending $2.8 million on high school textbooks, $537,000 on expanding the International Baccalaureate Program to middle school students and $2.2 million on hiring high school teachers.
