OEA president links test scores with teacher pay

Nov. 6—The president of the Oklahoma Education Association is linking a decline in test scores to teacher pay.

Oklahoma's National Assessment of Educational Progress report card released in October showed a decline in fourth-grade reading at three times the national average.

NAEP tests students every two years to measure progress in academics.

Katherine Bishop said Thursday that while COVID-19 contributed to the drop, Oklahoma's ongoing teacher shortage played a part.

Bishop said fewer teachers leads to larger class sizes, which in turn limits how much personal attention a teacher can give students.

In a state with more than 40,000 public school teaching positions, Oklahoma averages about 1,000 openings and 4,000 emergency teacher certifications annually, she estimated.

To close the gap, the state must increase teacher pay, Bishop said, referencing an Economic Policy Institute study that showed teachers were paid more than 30% less than other college graduates.

"Respect comes with competitive pay," Bishop said. "Respect comes with making sure that we have professionals that are treated as professionals, that are given appropriate working conditions, the class sizes, the materials to do the job that they love to do every day.

"But you're not going to fulfill a pipeline to get students to go into the college of education to become teachers if the pay is not there to pay student loans, to provide a roof over their head."

In September, the state Board of Education approved its 2023 budget for public education, which included a $5,000 base pay raise for teachers throughout the state. The raise will have to be approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor.

The proposed raise follows an increase of $6,100 in 2018 and a $1,220 increase in 2019.

The number of teachers in the state rose by more than 1,000 from the 2017-2018 school year to the 2019-2020 school year, according to education department records.

The number has since tapered off and fallen in the two years since, records show.

Gov. Kevin Stitt has said teachers are paid in the top half of states nationally — and the highest in the region — when adjusted for cost of living.

When asked about the cost of living adjustment, Bishop cited the pay gap between teachers and their college-educated counterparts.

Sen. Mary Boren (D-Norman) said college degrees are "very expensive," and that teachers should be able to pay back the education that got them into the profession.

"You can always lower your standard and say you don't want a college-educated teacher, and that's what my fear is," Boren said.

Sen. Rob Standridge (R-Norman) could not be reached for this story..

Beyond teacher pay, Bishop also said the NAEP test is only "a snapshot" of student performance.

And if NAEP is going to use tests to measure student performance, Bishop believes a test at the end of a school year should be measured against one at the beginning of the school year.

"Let's start looking at appropriate assessments to see how our kids are doing," she said. "Let's take a test that shows where they're at at the beginning of the year; this is how they scored at the end of the year. and not a one-time test to say, 'This is how we're going to evaluate how our schools are doing, how our teachers are doing."