Longer Year for Fairfax Teachers

Extended Contract Pilot Program Adds Duties and Dollars

The last day of school for most teachers in Fairfax County was June 17, but you wouldn't know it at George Marshall High School. One day this month, the hallway lights were dim and the parking lot nearly vacant, but an English teacher was advising an ambitious student in a bare classroom upstairs, and three social studies teachers were mulling over Harry Truman and test scores in the library.

The Falls Church area high school is part of an $8 million, three-year county pilot initiative to extend teacher contracts into summer and encourage teachers to take on greater responsibilities, inside and outside the classroom.

With intensifying demands from high-stakes tests and an increasingly diverse student population, Superintendent Jack D. Dale said, effective teaching requires more planning and collaboration. "Teaching is a full-time job," he said.

Away from the whiteboard, some teachers are data analysts, combing through test results to set priorities for September. Others are curriculum developers, teacher trainers or researchers on instructional techniques.

Many teachers do some or all of these things on the fringes of their traditional jobs. By paying them for their time, Dale is trying to cement these roles in their careers. Whether he can expand the initiative in tight budget times is an open question, especially as class sizes are increasing and teachers countywide are getting smaller cost-of-living raises than they would like.

Schools nationwide are looking for ways to pay striving or successful teachers more so they can attract and keep talent. The District and Prince George's County are offering financial incentives for exceptional teachers in challenging schools. Arlington County is enabling qualified teachers to skip a step on the salary schedule.

Fairfax's move toward a year-round teacher schedule is unusual, said Allan Odden, a University of Wisconsin professor who studies alternative teacher pay and who has advised Dale. But Odden said the notion of giving teachers more responsibilities in exchange for more pay is gaining momentum in public education. He said a "cadre of teacher leaders" in a school has proven to be critical for student achievement.

Fairfax's "teacher leadership" program began in summer 2006 with extended contracts for about 600 teachers at 24 schools, issued through competitive grants. The contracts add nine, 14 or 24 days to the traditional 194-day schedule. They can increase salaries as much as 12 percent.

This summer, the school system gave an additional 1,100 summer school teachers extended contracts instead of per diem stipends. The shift meant a little more money for those teachers, partly in the form of retirement benefits, but it also meant higher expectations. The summer school teachers were selected through a more competitive process. And in elementary and middle schools, duties do not end with summer school: Teachers in the program are expected to follow student progress throughout the year and become "experts in intervention" at their schools, said Peter Noonan, assistant superintendent for instructional services.

Eventually, Dale hopes to have as much as 70 percent of the school system's 14,000-teacher workforce on extended contracts. But as officials seek to extend or expand the program in the coming year, they might face funding challenges because of a severe budget crunch.

Leonard Bumbaca, president of the Fairfax Education Association, which represents teachers, said that he supports paying teachers for extra work but that he is concerned the program might lack ongoing funding. In a year when teacher pay raises did not match inflation, he questioned spending more on a select group of instructors.

Other teachers have expressed concern that the program is confusing and funds a wide array of activities without requiring schools to clearly document progress. "Teacher leadership was never clearly defined," said Richard J. Baumgartner, former president of Fairfax Education Association and a McNair Elementary reading teacher. A school system-funded evaluation of the grant proposals also found that they lacked cohesion and that many lacked a detailed monitoring plan.