News Story

Lansing School District Ignores Law Requiring Teacher Merit Pay

Even after seven years, district 'does not have a merit pay system,' says spokesman

The Lansing School District does not have a merit pay system to reward top teachers despite a seven-year-old law that requires extra compensation for good performance.

A Freedom of Information Act request sent to the district was met with a response: “The LSD does not have a merit pay system for its teachers.”

In 2010, then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed a law that required school districts to give successful teachers bonuses, something often referred to as merit pay. The law was signed in response to the federal government’s “Race to the Top” program.

State law says that public schools must “implement and maintain a method of compensation for its teachers and school administrators that includes job performance and job accomplishments as a significant factor in determining compensation and additional compensation.”

Lansing Superintendent Yvonne Caamal Canul did not respond to a request for comment.

In the 2015-16 school year, 45 percent of the district’s teaching staff — 296 of its 680 teachers — were given the highest rating of “highly effective” by administrators.

Ben DeGrow, director of education policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said a good merit pay system attracts better teachers to districts.

“The old single salary schedule is an inefficient, unsustainable way to deliver education,” he said. “Merit pay done right rewards educators who make the most positive impact and discourages those who aren’t cut out for the job. Perhaps most importantly, it sends a signal that brings more of the brightest and best into the profession where they can hone their talents and help students learn.”

“Meaningful pay reform may not be the most convenient approach for adults in the system, but the potential rewards are great,” DeGrow added.

This is the first in a series of stories looking at merit pay systems in several of the state’s largest school districts.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

News Story

Michigan School Districts: We Have No Ineffective Teachers

The law requires annual ratings, but is murky on how to do it

Judging by the percentages, the state of Michigan didn’t have one ineffective teacher or administrator last year in the entire public school system, which covers 899 charter schools and conventional school districts.

That’s according to the cumulative reports filed by all the state’s public schools after the 2015-16 year. The percentage of teachers and administrators who were given the lowest evaluation was so small that the state rounded it down to zero percent.

Districts perform the evaluations and turn them into the state, with the Center for Educational Performance and Information compiling the reports. A 2009 law requires districts to do annual effectiveness ratings for each teacher. But lawmakers and state education officials have struggled to create a specific rating process.

The performance evaluations come at a time when Education Week Research Center ranked the state of Michigan as 42nd in the country in K-12 achievement, giving it a D grade for 2016.

There were just 400 “ineffective” schoolteachers out of 94,164 in the state of Michigan in 2015-16, or fewer than one per school district. That comes out to zero percent.

The highest rating, “highly effective,” went to 39,327 teachers, or 42 percent of the teaching force. The largest group of teachers, 52,514 or 56 percent of all, were considered “effective.” Only 1,923 teachers, or 2 percent, were rated “minimally effective.”

For administrators, just 23 out of 6,598 were rated “ineffective,” a number that when rounded down becomes zero percent. There were 2,310 administrators, or 35 percent of all, who were rated “highly effective.” The largest group, 4,108 or 62 percent, were “effective,” and 157 or 2 percent were “minimally effective.”

“That is a massive disservice to teachers and administrators who strive to be above average,” said Leon Drolet, chair of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance. “Ultimately that translates to less incentives for educators to strive for excellence because they are not going to be recognized as such.”

“It’s a terrible disincentive and an insult to those administrators and teachers who do put in the extra effort,” Drolet continued. “It’s an insult to the citizens of the state who are smart enough to know there is no field anywhere in which 98 percent of those employed are adequate or better.”

The Michigan Department of Education didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.