By Ashleigh Costello
EAGnews.org

WASHINGTON D.C. – Every year, billions of taxpayer dollars are spent on “master’s bumps” for teachers, despite little evidence that teachers with advance college degrees are any more effective in the classroom.

Most American school districts continue to use a traditional salary schedule based on two simple factors:  longevity and the attainment of advanced college degrees.

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A recent report from the Washington-based Center for American Progress found the nation spent an estimated $14.8 billion on additional salary or stipends for teachers with advanced degrees during the 2008-09 school year. That is an increase of 72 percent from four years ago.

The aforementioned figure does not include the tuition reimbursements that many schools give to teachers to pay for their post-graduate classes.

Although more and more of our nation’s teachers are pursuing advanced degrees, student achievement has been declining in recent years.

According to the report, “The more nuanced evidence suggests that master’s degrees in math and science do confer an instructional advantage on teachers of those subjects, yet approximately 90 percent of the master’s degrees held by teachers come from education programs that tend to be unrelated to or unconcerned with instructional efficacy.”

In other words, the typical master’s degree held by a U.S. teacher does not confer the necessary skills to promote higher levels of student achievement.

The report suggests redirecting those funds toward other compensation schemes, like offering more money to teachers in fields where there are shortages of instructors; giving higher salaries to the most effective teachers; or offering incentives to teachers who take difficult assignments.

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Most public schools have very tight budgets at the moment. There is no excuse for wasting money on salary schemes that have little or no impact on student learning.