The Trump administration hit the ground running, reforming education in America. Most recently, President Trump signed the “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities” executive order. The order calls for the Secretary of Education to take all steps lawful to move toward closing the U.S. Department of Education and return authority to the states.
According to a press release from the Department of Education, among other things, “Teachers will be unshackled from burdensome regulations and paperwork, empowering them to get back to teaching basic subjects.” This is a vital step forward for educators nationwide.
However, the teacher education reforms that are needed must not stop there. Recently, Vivek Ramaswamy penned an article for The Wall Street Journal titled “Some Teachers Are Underpaid.” Ramaswamy makes the undeniable case for employing teacher performance pay to address America’s K-12 educational achievement crisis.
Ramaswamy correctly asserts, “Teacher quality is the No. 1 school-related factor affecting student progress.” Yet, the public education system compensates teachers based on seniority and credentials regardless of professional performance.
It’s time for states nationwide to reform teacher pay and certification. The status quo is resulting in only three out of ten eighth-grade public school students who can read on grade level or perform math proficiently, as evidenced by the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress exam scores.
First, change will require staffing classrooms with high-quality subject matter experts, including those with direct field experience in the content area, instead of limiting the profession to individuals possessing certification from a school of education.
Second, teacher compensation must be utilized to recruit, reward, and retain outstanding teachers based on merit while encouraging ineffective teachers to leave.
Until teachers are held accountable for student academic learning, U.S. public education will produce students years behind their international counterparts. As Ramaswamy writes, “A generation of illiterate, innumerate graduates is a geopolitical death sentence.”
President Trump is empowering states to govern K-12 education. Effective governance will require enacting these much-needed reforms.