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State Representative Bob Dettmer
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4124
For more information contact: Austin Bleess 651-296-5529
NEWS COLUMN
Q-COMP IS SHOWING PROMISE
By Bob Dettmer
State Representative
District 52A
Recently the non-partisan Office of the Legislative Auditor released an audit of how well the ground breaking Q-Comp program is doing. I heard the audit and the response by Commissioner of Education Alice Seagren in Committee. The report provided some good insights to the program, but for the most part concluded that it has not been in effect long enough to have real and meaningful data.
Having spent 34 years as an educator I have found Q-Comp can have a positive impact on our schools. It has provided incentives to teachers, which is different from all of the other programs that were tried before. Other programs focused on specific aspects of the classroom. Q-Comp focuses on teacher development as a whole. When the teacher is better trained and better understands teaching methods our students learn better.
Q-Comp also provides incentives that are similar to other careers. In other careers people are rewarded with pay increases for their performance. Q-Comp offers performance pay increases to teachers. Teaching is a career that has great impacts on society. The performance of our teachers directly impacts how well our students learn. It simply makes sense that we should pay our teachers for their performance just like other career professionals are paid.
Currently participation in the Q-Comp program is voluntary. School districts can choose to participate in the Q-Comp program or not. Those that choose to participate submit their plan of how to implement Q-Comp to the state Department of Education. This allows each school district to implement a plan that works for them. Each school district around the state is different. By allowing flexibility in the plans the state allows each district to excel and succeed. We realize there is no “one plan fits all” when it comes to educating students around the state. Flexibility is one of pieces that have helped make the program so successful.
So far Q-Comp has shown great results and great promise. Because it’s still a new program it’s hard to have complete and full results. But that does not mean it’s a failure or we should scrap it. We should look at the audit of the program and tweak it as necessary. Let’s work to make this good program even better. After all our students deserve a great education, and a great education starts with great teachers.
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