STATE TO STUDY UP ON GOOD TEACHING

Bob Potter's daughter went off to be a teacher in Olympia instead of Idaho because the job pays more money there.

Don Robson, head of Sandpoint's Coldwater Creek, wants more effective teachers in Idaho schools so the teens who graduate will be better employees for businesses.

Judy Bieze, Idaho's Teacher of the Year and head of a second- grade class at Hayden Meadows Elementary School in Coeur d'Alene, sees a need for more training for teachers throughout their careers.

All are issues that will be addressed by a new push in Idaho to examine how the state can improve the ways it trains, recruits, retains, rewards and assesses its teachers. Idaho is joining 12 other states in a consortium to work on the issues, thanks to a $1 million grant from the J.A. & Kathryn Albertson Foundation.

"We are not saying that the teachers of Idaho are bad teachers. There are wonderful teachers out there, but they can be better," Patricia Toney, teacher policy coordinator for the state Board of Education, said Tuesday.

Potter, head of the Jobs Plus business recruiting agency in Coeur d'Alene, serves on one of the effort's guiding committees, as does Bieze. Robson heads one of the panels.

"If we're going to be successful in this state, we've got to focus on improving the quality of our schools," Potter said. "If you're going to recruit companies, which is what I do, one of the first things you get into is the quality of education in the schools."

Robin Nettinga, president of the Idaho Education Association, also serves on one of the committees. "Our concern as an organization is to make sure that we retain the highest quality teachers in Idaho," she said.

First up is an inventory of where Idaho stands - a detailed look at how long Idaho teachers stay with the profession; how they're trained, recruited and rewarded; what results they achieve; and how Idaho's teaching environments impact teacher success.

Business people, educators, lawmakers, academics and others are serving on the committees, which hope to line up all the data and make recommendations for changes as soon as early next year.

The nationwide consortium is called "What Matters Most," but Idaho decided to call its program "MOST," an acronym for Maximizing Opportunities for Students and Teachers.

The ambitious agenda could mean the group will have to convince taxpayers and legislators that teachers deserve to be paid more, a job participants acknowledge will not be easy.

"The issue of incentives and rewards for teachers is high on the agenda of this discussion," said University of Idaho Provost Brian Pitcher, a member of the committee studying what issues affect how teachers do their job. "That's going to be one of those very difficult dialogues."

Robson said an effort will be made to quantify the effectiveness of Idaho's 17,000 teachers and then use the data to educate the public on the link between quality and compensation.

"We think that adds to the arsenal for credibility," Robson said.

The group also will develop a forecast of how many more teachers Idaho will need in the coming years in light of an anticipated shortage. A report on that is expected in fall 2000.

Idaho's MOST effort is based on findings of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future in its 1996 report "What Matters Most." It found that 49 percent of student achievement is linked to home and family factors, 43 percent to teacher qualifications and 8 percent to class size.

Idaho is among 13 states following up on the findings by assessing teacher policies. Toney said 11 states have completed their inventories.

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