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While Baltimore's salaries can't compete with pay in surrounding districts, across-the-board raises are not the solution. The district should develop targeted strategies for increasing talent, such as offering high salaries to its most effective teachers. |
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As in most school districts, principals in Baltimore do not adequately perform a critical task: evaluating their teachers. All teachers in Baltimore are supposed to be evaluated annually, but only half are. And those evaluated are almost always guaranteed a good rating, with 98 percent rated "satisfactory" in 2008-09. |
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Baltimore is ahead of most districts in allowing principals to fill their own vacancies, discarding the common practice of forced placements by the central office. But the district is also required, by state law, to keep a tenured teacher who's lost a position on the payroll, even if she can't find a position in another school. |
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The district has a hard time keeping good teachers, with a three-year retention rate of 65 percent and barely half of teachers remaining in the same school. |
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To comply with a new state regulation requiring that student growth account for at least 50 percent of a teacher's evaluation, Baltimore will need to change its teacher-evaluation system, which does not sufficiently factor in student achievement. |
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Baltimore teachers are given less planning time, but receive 30 percent more sick leave, on average, than their colleagues nationally. |
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