Frederica Freyberg:
We start with the need to change the Wisconsin law that prohibits using student test scores to evaluate teacher performance. The feds say that law on Wisconsin's books makes us ineligible for as much as $80 million in race to the top money. Republican state Rep. Brett Davis has such a bill drafted to change the law, as well as one aimed at giving teachers merit pay. He joins us now. We do note of the bill tying standardized test results to teacher evaluation that there are no Democrats listed as sponsors. Do you expect that they will begin lining up or why is that?

Brett Davis:
Well, I'm hopeful. This is not a partisan issue. There's Republicans and Democrats. Both agree that we want to make sure that we're getting the most out of our school system in Wisconsin. That's what we're after. Gov. Doyle has said he supports it. The Race to the Top applications came in. By the end of the year, we have to have things organized. I'm confident that both political parties will be onboard.

Frederica Freyberg:
Why do you think we should tie standardized test to teacher evaluations? 

Brett Davis:
I want to make sure it's clear, to be eligible for the grant you just have to strike down that prohibition. So that bill alone strikes down that prohibition. President Obama’s education secretary, Ernie Duncan, who was in the Chicago school district, known for reforms, called the state law that we have “simply ridiculous,” and he pointed to other states in the country. There were only a handful of them. I agreed with the secretary on it. So we have to strip that out. But it's more important to go to that next level and look for very positive ways to help reward the best teachers in the state of Wisconsin. So the first piece of that legislation, it just simply strikes down that prohibition. The next step is related to the merit pay piece.

Frederica Freyberg:
One of the things that the teachers’ union says about the evaluation and tests is that they would like to see that broadened out, not just based on that. Would you broaden that language out?

Brett Davis:
Absolutely. In fact, the merit pay legislation we talk about has a whole series of things that school boards can choose from. First of all, school boards have to opt into this if they want to be part of it because I've understood early on working with school boards and teachers that nothing works unless it's done at the local level. Madison does not have all the answers. I don't pretend to have all the answers. This has got to be done in partnership. So there's a series of progress that schools can make based on graduation rates, attendance, dropouts, closing that minority achievement gap. So there's a lot of things that they have to pick from.

Frederica Freyberg:
What do you think merit pay does toward improving education for the students?

Brett Davis:
Well, I think specifically it continues. We have a lot great teachers in the state of Wisconsin. I talk about my mom. She's a third grade school teacher in Monroe. There's a lot of great teachers. This simply rewards them for their efforts. I know a lot of teachers that put in their own personal money to classroom activities. They spend countless hours at nights and on weekends. This proposal simply is designed to help reward them. But it's not done specifically on an individual basis. I played sports growing up a lot. I've learned that if people work together as teams and as schools, and that’s what this legislation does, it says, if this school reaches these goals that the school board has set out, then they get rewarded. It's not done on an individual basis. I want to be very clear, this is a team effort. I think we can make positive changes because of it.

Frederica Freyberg:
Again, it's not based just on test scores, but what are some of the other things that could gain a school this merit pay?

Brett Davis:
Some of the things I talked about earlier. School boards opt into this. They have to show they're doing well on test scores or maintaining high levels. They also have to choose from two out of six different things. Attendance rates, graduation rates, percentage of people taking ACT scores, for example. The racial gap, the gap that exists between minority and non-minority students. So if they can focus on a couple of those things, I think student achievement will gain in the state of Wisconsin. So this is broadened out, it’s not just about tests.

Frederica Freyberg:
How fair is it, though, because there are obviously some student populations that are much more difficult to reach than others. So you might see some schools where they've got really high-achieving students that are “easy” to teach getting all the merit pay.

Brett Davis:
That's a terrific point. For that very reason, we put in the legislation high-growth areas. It's not just high-achieving people. It's the growth. If you look at Milwaukee Public Schools, they have significant challenges there, but you can also point to instances where there are actually having some positive growth going from semester to semester. We need to make sure we're rewarding those teachers and recognizing that there are student achievements happening in Wisconsin. This merit pay recognizes that.

Frederica Freyberg:
Very briefly, the merit pay would be like $750 per teacher.

Brett Davis:
It's $750 for support staff, but it's $1500 for certified teachers. It's a significant amount of money, and I think the teachers deserve it.

Frederica Freyberg:
Brett Davis, thanks very much.

Brett Davis:
Thank you very much.