The heralded rise and neglected fall of the Massachusetts signing bonus

Phi Delta Kappan

Volumn 89, Issue 5, 2008, Pages 380-385

  Fowler, R Clarke ^a  

^a SALEM STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 38449087803     PISSN: 00317217     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/003172170808900516     Document Type: Article

References (32)

1. "A $20,000 Signing Bonus for Teachers," Tampa Tribune, 3 February 1999, p. 6.
2. "Gilding the Chalkboard," Cleveland Plain Dealer, 6 February 1999, p. 10-B.
3. Edward Hayward, "Bay State Teacher Recruiting Cheered as Model for the Nation," Boston Herald, 6 July 2000, p. 26.
4. "Teacher Bonuses Pay Off in Massachusetts," School Board News, 20 February 2001.
5. Gary Hopkins, "Are Signing Bonuses the Answer?," Education World, 22 February 2001, www.education-world.com/columns/archives/admin_ archives.shtml.
6. Marilyn Cochran-Smith and Curtis Dudley-Marling, "The Flunk Heard Round the World," Teaching Education, vol. 12, 2001, pp. 45-64.
7. R. Clarke Fowler, "What Did the Massachusetts Teacher Tests Say About American Education?," Phi Delta Kappan, June 2001, pp. 773-80.
8. Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 15-A, Section 19-A.
9. Andrea Billups, "Massachusetts Puts Money Where Math Is: Woos Teachers with Big Signing Bonuses," Washington Times, 27 November 1999, p. A-1.
10. Heidi Perlman, "Professionals Get Their Chance to Teach Through New Program," MetroWest Daily News, 11 August 2000.
11. "Proposed System for Teacher Certification Based on Performance," unpublished paper, Massachusetts Department of Education, Boston, 20 April 1999.
12. Robin Estrin, "Massachusetts Brings Teacher Recruitment to New Level," Daily Ardmoreite, 2 February 1999.
13. Martin Finucane, "Teacher Bonus Winners Announced," StandardTimes, 25 May 1999.
14. "Massachusetts School Principals Give High Ratings to Signing Bonus Teachers," Massachusetts Department of Education, 26 December 2000, www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.asp?id=167.
15. Chester E. Finn, Jr., and Kathleen Madigan, "Removing the Barriers for Teacher Candidates," Educational Leadership, May 2001, pp. 29-31.
16. S. L. Wykes, "Some Teacher Bonuses up to $20,000: Massachusetts Just One Example of Incentives Trend," St. Paul Pioneer Press, 1 February 1999.
17. David Driscoll, "A Statement Regarding the Teacher Signing Bonus Program and MINT (Massachusetts Institute for New Teachers) Programs," Massachusetts Department of Education, www.doe.mass.edu/ news/news.asp?id= 1307.
18. R. Clarke Fowler, "Fast Track . . . Slow Going?," Ed Policy Research Brief, August 2002, www.edpolicy.org/publications/documents/update v2il.pdf.
19. Connie Rizzolli, personal communication, 16 May 2006.
20. Andrew Churchill et al., "An Evaluation and Analysis of the 12-to62 Plan for Recruiting and Retaining Teachers in Massachusetts," Center for Education Policy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, www. umass.edu/education/cep. Search under Reports, followed by Teacher Recruitment and Retention.
21. Edward Liu, Susan Moore Johnson, and Heather G. Peske, "New Teachers and the Massachusetts Signing Bonus Program: The Limits of Inducements," Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, vol. 26, 2004, pp. 217-36.
22. R. Clarke Fowler, "The Massachusetts Signing Bonus Program for New Teachers: A Model of Teacher Preparation Worth Copying?," Education Policy Analysis Archives, 22 April 2003, http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/ v11n13.
23. Liu, Johnson, and Peske, p. 225.
24. Susan Moore Johnson, Sarah E. Birkeland, and Heather G. Peske, A Difficult Balance: Incentives and Quality Control in Alternative Certification (Cambridge, Mass.: Project on the Next Generation of Teachers, Harvard Graduate School of Education, November 2005); and Churchill et al., op. cit.
25. Churchill et al., p. v.
26. The one-year attrition rate I report here is calculated on the first four cohorts of bonus teachers; the two-year rate, on the first three cohorts; and the three-year rate, on the first two cohorts. These percentages were calculated from documents provided by the Massachusetts Department of Education in response to a series of Freedom of Information Aa (FOIA) requests. I was unable to calculate data for the other years because the department changed the way it reported such data in response to FOIA requests.
27. Donald Boyd et al., "Initial Matches, Transfers, and Quits: Career Decisions and the Disparities in Average Teacher Qualifications Across Schools," unpublished paper, November 2002. Interested readers may Google the tide.
28. Liu et al., pp. 232-33.
29. "The Failings (and Possibilities) of Alternative Certification," Teacher Quality Bulletin, vol. 6, 2005, www.nctq.org/nctq/jsp/view_bulletin.jsp? title=Archives&search_page=volumes. jsp&bulletinId=218.
30. Orin Guderner, Erin Gruwell, and Karen Terrell, "What the Massachusetts Institute for New Teachers (MINT) Looks Like in the Field," in How to Find and Support Tomorrow's Teachers (Amherst, Mass.: National Evaluation Systems, 2004), p. 133.
31. Richard M. Ingersoll, "Holes in the Teacher Supply Bucket," School Administrator, 20 March 2002, p. 4.
32. "Common Sense School Reform," Policy Dialogue, no. 54, Pioneer Institute, April 2004, p. 5.