The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute

Does a Quality Teacher Determine a Quality Education?

By Benjamin Artz

No one questions the importance of education as a source of economic growth and stability. The more educated the workforce, the more productive it becomes. Income, spending and government budgets increase. Wisconsin needs a strong economic engine to stay afloat, and in the past Milwaukee has served as this engine. But now its perpetually failing public schools may be a sign that Milwaukee’s time is up.

To its credit, Milwaukee has tried to fix the problem through a number of different methods. Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) has closed badly performing schools and opened charter schools. The voucher program allows students to choose between public and private institutions, thus creating incentive for all schools to compete for students as well as funding. Unfortunately, it is arguable that nothing has worked. Test scores and graduation rates are still abysmal.

Recently an MPS school board committee searched for answers and came up with the idea of somehow increasing teacher quality. After all, if the quality of teaching increases, so will student test scores and graduation rates. However, what is true in theory is not necessarily true in practice. The first task is to decide what characteristics create quality teachers. MPS has centered on education and experience as the two primary determinants. This may be true, but MPS seems to be missing another vital determinant: continuity.

The Milwaukee school district has an enormous problem with teacher retention. The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future reported on MPS retention rates this past summer. The results speak for themselves. Low performing schools experience a turnover of 28.8%. This means that over a quarter of the teachers at a typical low-performing Milwaukee Public School do not return to that same school the next year. For young teachers (under 30) in all Milwaukee schools the turnover rate is 19.4% and is 18.8% for teachers with less than five years of experience.

It seems to me that the problem is not teacher experience or education. These do, in fact, create quality teachers. But without retention, it is difficult for MPS to sustain a large group of quality teachers. After gaining education and experience while in the Milwaukee School District, teachers clearly have an incentive to go to greener pastures. Therefore, MPS is perpetually struggling to hold on to educated and experienced teachers.

The goal should not be to explicitly increase education and experience of teachers but rather give them incentives to stick around. Increases in education and experience will follow accordingly. Thus MPS has got to find a way to make its teachers happier with their jobs.

One suggestion is to abolish the residency requirement for teachers to live in Milwaukee County. Another is to give them smaller class sizes and better equipment and supplies to work with. At the end of the day, in order for MPS to be successful, teachers must be willing to stay put. It is in the interest of not only Milwaukee but for the entire state of Wisconsin. Otherwise, we may be looking to Madison as Wisconsin’s next economic engine.

-October 18, 2007

Does a Quality Teacher Determine a Quality Education?

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