Mentoring works for teachers, too

In another impressive example of Jacksonville's commitment to improving the public schools, the United Way released the results of a two-year study aimed at empowering teachers.

The study was funded by the Gates Foundation and United Way Worldwide. Jacksonville was one of only 14 cities to receive this grant. There are just two others in Florida - Hillsborough and Broward counties.

The study drew an impressive selection of experts from education, nonprofit and business sectors.

The results deserve to be studied and implemented especially the conclusion that teachers mentoring teachers appears to have promising results in improving student performance.

The influence of teachers on student performance is huge, outweighing any other single variable. National studies show that good teachers can raise student performance an entire grade level or more compared to bad teachers.

The reverse is true, too, of course, which is why getting several bad teachers in a row can be devastating to student performance.

One of the more interesting products of the study was a survey that showed that pay is far from the top in retaining teachers.

Pay may not motivate

This is counterintuitive for people in business where there is a direct relationship between pay and performance. It's not so simple in the schools.

According to a survey taken for the study, the No. 1 item for retaining teachers is leadership, especially from a school's principal.

Given that there are 170 schools in the Duval County system, finding and keeping good principals is the most important job of a superintendent.

Pay tied to evaluations (No. 8) and student performance (No. 9) were low on the list.

There are so many influences involved on student performance it is difficult to isolate and identify any one.

Teaching is a collaborative job, so performance pay, if handled poorly, could even backfire.

The Duval County school system already uses various forms of merit pay, one of the leading school districts in the state.

But does it work?

Little evidence

The first scientific study of performance pay tied to student test scores showed no impact. It was conducted in the Nashville public schools from 2007 through 2009.

The Nashville study was conducted by the RAND Corp. and Vanderbilt University. The conclusions were that other elements must be added; bonus pay alone isn't enough.

One could speculate that good teachers are already working hard. Working smarter is the key, and that can only come with better training.

Thus the emphasis from the United Way on developing mentors for teachers could be the key to improved teacher performance especially in the high-need schools where students are bringing many difficulties from home.

Ramp up programs

The Duval County school system already has teacher mentor programs. The district honored three of its thousand teacher mentors on Monday.

Leaders of the United Way study suggest ramping this up by creating a group of master mentor teachers with the time and the pay to do the work.

Mentoring has been part of national certification for teachers, but that program has been de-emphasized in recent years.

Do teachers even have the time in school for mentoring each other? Perhaps there needs to be some time devoted to substitute teachers while mentoring takes place. Doing it in their spare time simply can't be ratcheted up.

The state's emphasis on including test scores in teacher evaluations is important, but that must be balanced with skilled leadership from principals. They must be master teachers, too.

The new superintendent is going to be entering a district that has a great many assets that are ready to be scaled up, coordinated and communicated. That is what is meant by a transformative leader.

The United Way study involved a district that is ready to do great things.