Brian Ford writes to express his admiration for Bruce Baker’s work. Baker is at Rutgers in New Jersey. He has published many valuable statistical analyses of school finance, charter schools, and the teaching profession. He is especially good at debunking inflated claims.

Brian Ford writes:

I always liked Bruce Baker, but now he is a bit of hero for me after his recommendations in his

“A Not So Modest Proposal: My New Fully Research Based School!”

http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/tag/1464 (list of Bruce Baker blog posts with links)

There are a lot of good recommendations, but my favorite:

“Hire and keep only those teachers who have exactly 4 years of experience

“First, and foremost, since the research on teacher experience and degree levels often shows that student value-added test scores tend to level off when teachers reach about the 4th year of their experience, I see absolutely no need to have teachers on my staff with any more or less than 4 years experience, or with a salary of any greater than a 4th year teacher with a bachelors degree might earn.””

It would go well with Mark Naison’s

“Why School Boards Love Temporary Teachers”

http://www.laprogressive.com/school-boards-love-temporary-teachers/

“All over the country, school districts who do not have a teacher shortage — the most recent is Buffalo, New York — are trying to bring in Teach for America corps members to staff their schools.

Why any school district would want to bring in teachers who have been trained for five weeks and have no classroom experience to replace teachers with years of training, experience, and mentoring would seem to defy common sense unless one considers the budgetary considerations at stake.

“Since few Teach for America teachers stay beyond their two-year commitment in the schools they are assigned to, there is a huge saving in pension costs for using them over teachers likely to stay till they are vested. Having a temporary teaching force also gives a school board greater flexibility in assigning teachers, and in closing old schools and re-opening new ones. It also, in the long run, will totally destroy the power of teachers unions in the district, allowing for costs savings that can be invested in increased testing and evaluation protocols.”