Formula to make teachers?

Senior math major Grant Fiddyment maps his future like the plottings of an algorithm: He will graduate from UGA with distinction, possibly make a stop teaching public school and then move on to a career as a professional and a student.

“I don’t think that teaching necessarily fits into my long-term plan right now,” said Fiddyment, 21, who recently applied to a federal program to satisfy his curiosity about teaching. “But I can’t rule out the possibilities.”

The Alpharetta native is just the kind of student state lawmakers want to attract to teach in Georgia schools —- and to sweeten the pot, a legislative committee is considering offering incentive pay to lure math and science experts from dormitory rooms and pharmaceutical laboratories into classrooms.

The differentiated pay proposal would help meet a need for highly qualified teachers in the critical areas of math and science, where state test scores lag.

Offering new mathematics and science teachers incentive pay would cast aside the long-standing tradition of paying Georgia teachers who have the same college degrees —- be it a bachelor of arts or a bachelor of science degree —- the same starting wage.

The new pay scale, which would require approval from the General Assembly and the governor, would cost the state about $9.6 million to implement the first year.

“Nine million dollars is a lot, but we could find it within the budget to attract these teachers,” said state Rep. Brooks Coleman (R-Duluth), who co-chairs a committee that is considering the idea.

The committee will meet in October and November to discuss what legislation should be proposed. Legislators also would decide whether the incentive pay should be voluntary or mandatory for school systems.

Others may object

Under the plan, salaries of entry-level math and science teachers, whether they have a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree or a doctorate, would be about $5,000 more than teachers of other disciplines.

The pay of existing math and science teachers with a clear renewable certificate also would be adjusted if they are below the new threshold. Elementary school teachers who maintain or acquire special certifications in math and science would earn an annual bonus of $1,000 per certificate.

State officials say the money would be money well spent —- even if the plan is likely to cause an uproar among teachers who would earn less money.

“All teachers are special,” said Kelly Henson, executive secretary for the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, which presented the study to legislators. “We are not suggesting that differentiated pay only be extended to math and science teachers, but that is the right place to start.”

The funding would come from the state’s multi-billion education budget, which is being stretched thin in tight times. But Gov. Sonny Perdue isn’t ruling out the possibility of funding the plan under the right circumstances, said Bert Brantley, the governor’s spokesman.

But some fear differentiated pay could “drive a wedge” between teachers.

“You are slapping the other teachers in the face by saying you are not worth as much as science and math teachers,” said Barbara Wilson, co-president of the Gwinnett Association of Educators, who has a doctorate in language arts.

“I can’t think of any student who does well in math that can’t read.”

Tougher curriculums

The demand for more math and science teachers is being fueled in part by the state’s new graduation requirements.

This year, freshmen need four years each of math and science to graduate, so more teachers are necessary.

Of the state’s 119,018 teachers, only 8,990 of them teach math, and 7,284 teach science in grades 6 through 12. More than 11,000 teach English. Paying new math and science teachers more money may attract more of them to schools.

Alex Moore, a math major at the University of Georgia who wants to become a teacher, says that more money would definitely be a plus.

“As a starting teacher, you are trying to get on your feet,” he said. “Any extra little bit helps.”

But offering differentiated pay for math and science teachers could cause other areas to suffer, said Susan Dietz, a veteran language arts teacher at Central Gwinnett High School in Lawrenceville.

“This is a Band-Aid on a problem that probably needs major surgery,” said Dietz, a co-president of the Gwinnett Association of Educators.

“If you start with differentiated pay you are going to have people up at arms. You are going to drive them out.”

Not unprecedented

Many states offer teachers incentive pay in critical needs areas. Texas, for instance, offers a $5,000 incentive for teachers certified as “masters” in reading, math or technology.

Some metro Atlanta school systems also offer a form of incentive pay for those teachers who get special distinctions, such as National Board Certification.

Marietta City Schools offer a $3,000 signing bonus over three years to fully certified math and science teachers in grades 6 through 12 .

Lockheed Elementary math teacher Mary Jackson, who spent 30 years working for IBM before teaching, didn’t receive that bump. But she would qualify for a bonus under the differentiated pay plan.

Jackson says more of her old colleagues at IBM might be attracted to teaching if the profession paid better.

“In trying to get business people to make an economic transition from business to education, you have to incent them,” said Jackson, who has a master’s in instructional technology.

State School Superintendent Kathy Cox supports the idea, but the proposal is a long way from implementation, said Dana Tofig, a spokesman for the state Department of Education.

Still, veteran North Gwinnett High School physics teacher Kent Ames likes the idea of more pay to attract and retain science and math teachers because of the complexities of their jobs.

“Physics is a really hard subject to get a handle on, especially to try to teach it to high school students,” said Ames, who tutors students after hours at school. “It takes special people.”

As for Fiddyment, the senior math major from UGA, he isn’t concerned about money as much as he is satisfying his intellectual curiosity for math.

He wants to go to grad school and continue learning as he works in either nuclear research or applied math at a university.

“I don’t want to stop learning math just so I could teach it to other people,” he said. “My choice of a job is not about what is going to offer me the most money, it’s about what is going to offer me the most satisfaction.”