Redesigning work and compensation to fit NCLB: a superintendent's proposal for addressing today's pressing site-level leadership and instructional needs.

What will it take to create and support a core teacher workforce in school systems that now must be redesigned for the high-stakes assessment environment of No Child Left Behind?

School systems were beginning to address this question just as high stakes and high standards were being mandated across the nation. At the same time poverty rates were increasing, racial achievement gaps were static, teacher union demands for fair compensation were becoming more strident and resources were being reduced.

Our teacher workforce solutions nationwide tend to be on the margins. We negotiate additional stipends, per diem rates of pay, workshop rates of pay, curriculum rates of pay and other methods of adding bits of time and compensation. We work on the margins simply because we have not created a compelling vision of a new teacher compensation system. Our current systems never will change unless we create a focused effort to do so.

Revamped Workplace

We must stop working on the edges of this issue and restructure the teacher work and compensation system. As part of our redesign, we must recognize that many adults now wish to have multiple careers inside and outside of education. We must recognize that people enter the profession to work with children. Teachers typically do not aspire to become administrators, yet they do seek an active voice in the decisions affecting their classrooms and their working conditions.

We also ask teachers to perform a multitude of duties outside the classroom. Schools now require a leadership structure that includes people inside and outside the schoolhouse. We expect teachers to teach, perform leadership functions, participate in school improvement decisions, monitor progress and involve parents in classroom activities. The list of expectations, pressures and demands is lengthy, and all are issued in the name of leaving no child behind. It is time to redesign their work and compensation structure.

The work/compensation system of the future must recognize five current realities:

* Teaching is a full-time profession and can no longer be viewed under an hourly employment paradigm of so many hours per day and so many days per year.

* Teachers no longer just teach. They must perform a multitude of duties in and out of the classroom to be successful.

* The teaching profession can incorporate multiple careers, none of which need include the title of administrator.

* Educators must be competitively compensated as well as comparably trained professionals.

* The changes must be made within a school system's current resource pool over time. Additional resources may become available if we restructure the work of teachers and their work year.

In addition to these parameters, we must shift our leadership paradigm from a hierarchical model to a shared leadership model. We are expecting shared decision making and shared leadership responsibilities as we strive to improve school performance. Most of our current school structures do not reflect this shift in thinking. We must use shared decision making and leadership across multiple responsibilities in a school.

Finally, to fully embrace the set of professional expectations, professional roles and professional salaries, we must recognize that the work year and work day can and should vary within schools and across school systems. Just as we now recognize that no one instructional approach works for all children, no one job describes the set of duties for all teachers, nor does one work calendar address the variety of necessary roles and functions in any school. We must re-think current roles and responsibilities in education and design a system that will work in an environment of high stakes and high standards for all students.

Expanded Parameters

The proposed teacher work/compensation model is based on teachers choosing and being selected into one of many role options. The options include not only the current set of responsibilities--what I'll call here the Traditional Role--but also an additional set of roles that will form the core of the redesigned school system.

The role options are designed around the core functions of any school. All schools must provide leadership to the entire school community. This function has moved beyond the confines of the principal's office and typically includes a leadership team comprised of teachers and community members as well as the principal. In addition to school leadership, there must be coordination among the elementary, middle and high schools. Both of these leadership functions must occur outside the 180-day school year and are probably best addressed before the school year starts.

Training and mentoring of new staff is another necessary leadership function, especially with the federal requirements for highly qualified staff. This function begins before the school year starts but also must be ongoing throughout the year. The work calendar for this function is different from the calendar for the other school and feeder leadership functions.

The new teacher leadership functions would be in addition to the normal 180-day teaching duties. Each recognizes the importance of teachers as key leaders and decision makers for other necessary school endeavors. Because the time demands are different, each will require a different work calendar, but all new roles are based on the same length of work year--11 months instead of the current 10.

New Roles

A complete list of proposed teacher roles includes the following:

* School Improvement Teacher Leader--11 months of work (including the normal teaching duties) plus additional school leadership responsibilities that are shared with the principal.

* Feeder/Cluster Improvement Teacher Leader--11 months of work (including normal teaching assignment) focused on connections and collaboration with schools within a K-12 cluster that students would attend during their school years.

* New Teacher Trainer/Mentor--11 months of work (including normal teaching assignment) focused on training new teachers prior to the start of school and mentoring the new staff during the school year.

* Extended Student Learning--11 months of work (including normal teaching assignment) focused on tutoring and nurturing students performing below grade level. Such work would be done after school and during school breaks, as needed.

* Student Transition Leadership--11 months of work (including normal teaching assignment) focused on analysis of individual student's academic and social progress and coordination of support services for children needing added social/transition skills.

* Traditional Role--180 school days plus some additional preparation and training days. This includes normal duties that are essentially the same as current teaching duties.

Many of these functions already are being addressed in many schools. We currently devote a great deal of money to many of these functions, but we do so on a piecemeal basis. Rarely do we group professional staff in a manner that creates a comprehensive teacher work and compensation system. We must create such a system if we wish to become more intentional about leaving no child behind, if we expect professionals to engage in all the necessary roles and responsibilities for sustaining high-performing schools, if we recognize that distributed, aligned leadership is a must in our ever-changing society and if we hope to compensate professional teachers for the full-time set of duties that are now part of the profession.

Intervention Capacity

To show how this model might work, let us apply it to a typical school setting. Below is a model of an elementary school of 550 students, 30 percent of whom are functioning below grade level and hence need extended learning opportunities.

The model assumes a 12:1 student to teacher ratio for the additional learning time. The school currently has 34 staff members, including special education, art, music and physical education specialists. The targeted intervention staff includes counseling, reading and library/media specialists. In short, all the certificated staff at the school is included. (Each school system will vary because of staffing models that exist.)

The new model assumes a portion of the staff will be willing to accept additional responsibilities for which they will receive an 11-month contract, representing an additional 10 percent compensation (or whatever is negotiated). This model also provides sufficient staff to create no more than a 12:1 student-teacher ratio for the situations of greatest need--extended learning. Flexible scheduling of the added time is necessary to meet the needs of the students most requiring assistance. This means that not all teachers will be working the same hours--a paradigm shift for management.

Other roles, both school and cluster leadership, likewise will require different work calendars. These staff members would presumably do much of their work prior to the start of each school year as their focus must be planning for and leading the entire school or set of schools in a cluster. Mentoring the new staff would probably be scheduled before the school year as well as during the school year. Again, this would have to be flexible, based on the needs of the new staff.

Professionalizing Staff

Finally, the model, as proposed, assumes about 75 percent of the staff would be needed to fulfill all the roles. Initial survey data suggests that between 70 percent and 80 percent of a school's staff would be interested in assuming one of the 11-month positions. This will vary from school to school and across school systems.

The specific set of roles also will vary and the model allows for that variation. The model does re-professionalize the profession and it does substantively change the work and compensation system to become more aligned with current reality.

This approach differs substantially from many new compensation models that focus on adding stipends or per diem pay for added knowledge, skills or responsibilities. The choice of model belongs to each jurisdiction. This model does make a significant departure from many old models as well as those being explored in many places in our nation.

Elementary School With 550 Students

Current staffing:

23 Traditional teaching positions

5 Specialists--art, music, special education, physical education

2 Administrators

4 Targeted specialists--reading, etc.

Total: 34

Redesigned staffing:

4 School improvement

1 Feeder/Cluster improvement

3 New teacher trainer/mentor

14 Extended student learning 4 Student transitions

8 Traditional teaching positions

Total: 34

Jack Dale is superintendent of the Fairfax County Public Schools, 10700 Page Ave., Fairfax, VA 22030. E-mail: [e-mail]