EDITORIAL - Look at New York, Mr Thwaites

Ronnie Thwaites is already in for a penny. He might as well go in for a pound.

In that case, he might draw on New York City, where, like Jamaica, the teachers long resisted an evaluation system to hold them accountable for education outcomes - even as it became a legal requirement of the state. One was recently imposed by the city's education commissioner, John B. King.

We believe that the issue is relevant and timely given the reform agenda recently outlined by Mr Thwaites, our education minister, and the resistance being mounted by the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA). The teachers' union wants to hold on to unreasonably long holiday and study-leave entitlements, even though these are no longer affordable in their current forms.

But absent from Mr Thwaites' package, and a point on which we previously suggested that he should be willing to engage and trade with the JTA, is performance-based pay. In other words, teachers should have to undergo regular evaluations, on which a portion of their salaries and continued employment depended. Part of that measure should be based on students' test scores.

In 2010, the New York state legislature passed a law that provided the broad outlines of an evaluation system to replace one that was less than rigorous or empiric. The new arrangement would include test scores and classroom observations.

However, in New York City, the United Federation of Teachers, which covers the bulk of the city's 75,000 teachers, couldn't agree. Eventually, the state's governor, Andrew Cuomo, authorised Mr King, to fashion and impose a system.

The platform the education commissioner decided on includes a stipulation that between 20 and 25 per cent of a teacher's rating would relate to state-approved test scores, measuring the growth of students. Another 15-20 per cent would be based on measures established by schools and 55-60 per cent would be based on classroom observation.

"There is the opportunity for differentiation on the school level," explained Mr King after he announced the system. That is a critical point.

FALLACIOUS ARGUMENT

In Jamaica, the JTA officials have consistently argued that an absence of uniformity in the island's schools, in terms of resources and the educational readiness of the children they receive, made it impossible to craft a system for measuring teacher performance. That, of course, is a fallacy.

As this newspaper has held, what is necessary are the broad principles, which can be tweaked for individual circumstances. Further, the New York City arrangement removes a major fear, and cause for resistance, by Jamaica's teachers: that teachers and schools would have little input in their assessment. Indeed, in New York City, the greater part of the evaluation matrix will reside within the schools.

Teachers cannot expect to hold on to their jobs and demand higher wages and improved working conditions, when 40 per cent of the children entering high school are not ready for that level of education; and only 60 per cent of the high-school cohort, after five years, are capable of passing, in a single sitting, five subjects, including math and English, at CXC.

If this improves, some of the savings from the $20-billion-a-year spend in remedial efforts can be shared with teachers.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.