Duncan: Rewarding Teachers for Master’s Degrees Is Waste of Money November 19, 2010, 2:11 pm
In a speech at an American Enterprise Institute forum on Wednesday, the secretary of education, Arne Duncan, said state and local governments should rethink their policies of giving pay raises to teachers who have master’s degrees because evidence suggests that the degree alone does not improve student achievement. The remark was part of a speech about ways lawmakers can use current budget shortfalls to make public schools more productive. Mr. Duncan has consistently advocated tying teacher pay to student performance, but he has rarely taken shots at credentialing programs.
http://www.aei.org/docLib/20101117-Arne-Duncan-Remarks.pdf
"THE NEW NORMAL: DOING MORE WITH LESS" Remarks of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the American Enterprise Institute panel, "Bang for the Buck in Schooling" November 17, 2010
Many high‐performing education systems, especially in Asia, have substantially larger classes than the United States. According to OECD data, secondary school classes in South Korea average about 36 students. In Japan, it's 33 students per class. In the U.S., it's 25 students per class. In fact, teachers in Asia sometimes request larger class sizes because they think a broad distribution of students and skill levels can accelerate learning.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/us/19gates.html
[Gates] suggests they end teacher pay increases based on seniority and on master’s degrees, which he says are unrelated to teachers’ ability to raise student achievement. He also urges an end to efforts to reduce class sizes. Instead, he suggests rewarding the most effective teachers with higher pay for taking on larger classes or teaching in needy schools.