[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 99 (Wednesday, July 26, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7672-S7673]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Mr. Hollings, and Mr. Inouye):
  S. 2929. A bill to establish a demonstration project to increase 
teacher salaries and employee benefits for teachers who enter into 
contracts with local educational agencies to serve as master teachers; 
to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.


                       master teacher legislation

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today Senators Hollings, Inouye, and I 
are introducing a bill to create a demonstration grant program to help 
school districts create master teacher positions.
  Our bill authorizes $50 million for a five-year demonstration program 
under which the Secretary of Education would award competitive grants 
to school districts to create master teacher positions. Federal funds 
would be equally matched by states and local governments so that $100 
million total would be available. Under the bill, 5,000 master teacher 
positions could be created, or 100 per State, if each master teacher 
were paid $20,000 on top of the current average teacher's salary.
  As defined in this amendment, a master teacher is one who is 
credentialed; has a least five years of teaching experience; is judged 
to be an excellent teacher by administrators and teachers who are 
knowledgeable about the individual's performance; and is currently 
teaching; and enters into a contract and agrees to serve at least five 
more years.
  The master teacher would help other teachers to improve instruction, 
strengthen other teachers' skills, mentor lesser experienced teachers, 
develop curriculum, and provide other professional development.
  The intent of this bill is for districts to pay each master teacher 
up to $20,000 on top of his or her regular salary. Nationally, the 
average teacher salary is $40,582. In California, it is $44,585. 
Elementary school principals receive $64,653 on average nationally and 
$72,385 in California. The thrust of the master teacher concept in this 
bill is to pay teachers a salary closer to that of an administrator to 
keep good teachers in teaching.
  The bill requires State and/or local districts to match federal funds 
dollar for dollar. It requires the U.S. Department of Education to give 
priority to school districts with a high proportion of economically 
disadvantaged students and to ensure that grants are awarded to a wide 
range of districts in terms of the size and location of the school 
district, the ethnic and economic composition of students, and the 
experience of the districts' teachers.
  There are several reasons we need this bill.


                       new teachers need support

  First, new teachers face overwhelming responsibilities and challenges 
in their first year, but in the real world, they get little guidance. 
When first-year teachers enter the classroom, there is typically little 
help available to them, in a year that will have a profound impact on 
the rest of their professional career. They are ``out there alone,'' 
virtually isolated in their classroom, thrown into an unfamiliar school 
and classroom with a room full of new faces. By the current sink-or-
swim method, new teachers often find themselves ill equipped to deal 
with the educational and disciplinary tasks of their first year.
  In California, 23 percent of teachers in kindergarten through the 
third grade are novices. Furthermore, we have 30,000 inexperienced 
teachers on emergency credentials in California, over ten percent of 
our teaching workforce.
  A new teacher can get experienced guidance from a master teacher who 
is paired with the new teacher. The master teacher can help plan 
lessons, improve instructional methods, and deal with discipline 
problems. ``If you're [a master teacher] teaching a class, then you can 
say, `last week I handled a discipline problem this way.' It's much 
more credible.'' said Carl O'Connell, a New York mentor teacher.


                   enhancing the teaching profession

  Second, master teacher programs can bring more prestige to teaching 
as a profession, by increasing the teacher's salary, by rewarding 
experience, and by giving teachers opportunities to supervise others. A 
master teacher designation is a way to recognize outstanding ability 
and performance. A master teacher position can give teachers a 
professional goal, a higher level to pursue. A 1996 report by the 
National Commission for Teaching and America's Future said that 
creating new career paths for teachers is one of the best ways to give 
educators the respect they deserve and to ensure that proven teaching 
methods spread quickly and broadly.
  In one survey of teachers which asked which factors make teachers 
stay in teaching, 79 percent of teachers said that respect for the 
teaching profession is needed in order to retain qualified teachers. 
Eighty percent said that formal mentoring programs for beginning 
teachers is key (Scholastic/Chief State School Officers' Teacher Voices 
Survey, 2000). Over 70 percent of teachers said that more planning time 
with peers is needed to keep teachers in the classroom. This amendment 
should help.


                 improving retention, reducing turnover

  Because of the higher pay and enhanced prestige, a master teacher 
program can help to recruit and retain teachers. Mentor systems provide 
new teachers with a support network, someone to turn to. Studies 
indicate higher retention rates among new teachers who participate in 
mentoring programs. According to Yvonne Gold of California State 
University-Long Beach, 25 percent of beginning teachers do not teach 
more than two years and nearly 40 percent leave in the first five 
years. In the Rochester, New York, system, the teacher retention rate 
was nearly double the national average five years after establishing a 
mentoring program.
  As Jay Matthews wrote in the May 16 Washington Post, programs like 
this ``can provide a large boost to the profession's image for a 
relatively small amount of money.'' These programs can keep good 
teachers in the classroom, instead of losing them to school 
administration or industry. Larkspur, California, School Superintendent 
Barbara Wilson says she is ``witnessing a steady exodus to dotcom and 
other, more lucrative industries.'' (San Francisco Chronicle, March 26, 
2000).
  Higher salaries and prestige for master teachers could deter the 
drain from the classrooms.


                      holding teachers accountable

  Another reason for this amendment is that teacher mentoring programs 
can make teacher performance more accountable. A master teacher can 
help novice teachers improve their teaching and get better student 
achievement. ``Teachers cannot be held accountable for knowledge based, 
client-oriented decisions if they do not have access to knowledge, as 
well as opportunities for consultation and evaluation of their work,'' 
said Adam Urbanski, President of the Rochester, New York, Teachers

[[Page S7673]]

Association. He went on: ``Unsatisfactory teacher performance often 
stems from inadequate and incompetent supervision. Administrators often 
lack the training and the resources to supervise teachers and improve 
the performance of those who are in serious trouble.''
  Good teachers are key to learning. Lower math test scores have been 
correlated with the percentage of math teachers on emergency permits 
and higher math test scores were linked both to the teachers' 
qualifications and to their years of teaching experience, according to 
``Professional Development for Teachers, 2000.''


                        california would benefit

  This bill could be very helpful in California where one-fifth of our 
teachers will leave the profession in three years, according to an 
article in the February 9, 2000, Los Angeles Times.
  California will need 300,000 new teachers by 2010. ``More students to 
teach, smaller classes, teachers leaving or retiring means that 
California school districts are now having to hire a record 26,000 new 
teachers each year,'' says the report, ``Teaching and California's 
Future, 2000.'' California's enrollment is growing at three times the 
national rate. With these kinds of demands, understaffing often leads 
to under qualified and new teachers entering the classroom. We have to 
do all we can to attract and retain good teachers.


                  examples of master teacher programs

  California has instituted several programs along these lines. 
California has a program to help beginning teachers. It has grown from 
$5 million (supporting 1,100 new teachers in 1992) to nearly $72 
million (serving 23,000 new teachers in 1999-2000). But even with this 
increase, the program still does not serve all new teachers,'' 
according to the report, Teaching and California's Future, 2000.
  The Rochester City, New York, school system has a Peer Assistance and 
Review Program, begun by the schools and the Rochester Teacher 
Association. The Rochester program is working. ``The evaluation is 
absolutely spectacular. The program has been a terrific success. It has 
been deemed a success by mentors, by the panel, by the district, by the 
union, and, most importantly, by the interns themselves,'' reported the 
newspaper, New York Teacher.
  Delaware provides mentors for beginning teachers. ``Not only are 
beginning teachers receiving the support they need, but the mentoring 
program is also developing networks among teachers within districts and 
across the state, and the mentors have `a new enthusiasm' for 
teaching,'' as reported in ``Promising Practices'' in 1998.
  Columbus, Ohio, schools instituted a Peer Assessment and Review 
program similar to Rochester's. It has two components: the intern 
program for all newly hired teachers and the intervention program for 
teachers who are having difficulties in the classroom teaching. 
According to the State Education Agency, ``the district has a lower 
rate of attrition than similar districts because of PAR.'' (Promising 
Practices, 1998).
  The funds provided in this bill can supplement and expand existing 
State programs and help other States start new programs.


                        students are the winners

  The true beneficiaries of master teacher programs are the students 
and that is, or course, our fundamental goal. As stated in Rochester's 
teaching manual, the goal is ``to improve student outcomes by 
developing and maintaining the highest quality of teaching, providing 
teachers with career options that do not require them to leave teaching 
to assume additional responsibilities and leadership roles.''
  I believe this bill can begin to provide teachers the real 
professional support they need, can attract and retain teachers and can 
bring to the profession the prestige it deserves.
  I urge my colleagues to join us in support of this bill.
                                 ______