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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 1984)
Page 2B/The Battalion/Thursday, January 26, 1984 ■ Study: Higher salaries will attract better teachei By RHONDA SNIDER Reporter Do higher teacher salaries and more money for material resources in schools increase the quality of teachers? The answer to this question has received much debate in the recent con troversy over the quality of edu cation in America. Two Texas A&M political sci ence professors have designed a report, “Resources for Public Education and Teacher Quali ty,” to answer the question. Drs. Harvey Tucker and David Hill believe there is evi dence to “support the proposi tion that better candidate teachers can be attracted by higher teacher salaries and grea ter material resources for educa tion.” The report cited a study which found a significant corre lation between average teacher salaries and average Scholastic Aptitude Test scores. In states which had higher salaries for teachers, the average SAT scores tended to be higher also. In addition this study re vealed that expenditures per pupil in average daily attend ance are also significantly corre lated with the SAT scores of those who intend to study edu cation. The study, conducted earlier this year by C.E. Feistritzer of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, co vered 22 states. Tucker said this was unique data and worth compiling into the report that he sent to the Governor’s Select Commission on Education. The Commission is making recommendations to the Texas Legislature on how to spend the state’s money on edu cation. He said this research doesn’t prove that states which raise teacher salaries will have better quality teachers. It also doesn’t prove the high salaries will pro duce students who will make higher SAT scores. For example. New Hamp shire had the second lowest av erage teacher salaries but had the highest average SAT scores of the 22 states in the survey. Nevertheless, Tucker said, the research approaches a positive answer to the question of how to get better quality teachers. The research also suggests — though it doesn’t prove — that students who plan to major in education will be smarter if they attend a school system with grea ter funding for material re sources, he said. “It gives us evidence to sug gest that this is not a silly idea,” Tucker said. “It suggests to me that if we make a commitment to higher salaries and more money for school systems, we could im prove on those who decide to go into education as a career.” Tucker said data are not avail able on those who actually did go into education as a career, but the scores are available of those who plan to major in education and these are usually lower than average SAT scores. A two-step, long-term pro cess is needed to produce higher quality teachers, Tucker said. He recommends increasing salaries which will begin to attract a higher quantity of can didates to the teaching field. This will bring both higher and lower quality teachers which leads to the second step — weed- iP; ing out the lower quality ones. He said this is a long-term strategy because initiating the higher salaries would not change the present teachers, but would merely give them a grea ter income. Tucker said not much can be done to improve teacher quality in the short run. In the long run, however, the natural turnover in the leaching field will result in higher quality people, he said. This process will take at least three to five years before any effect is seen due to more intelli gent young people who decide to go into leaching because of the higher salaries. And it may take as long as 10-15 yean fore a state would recogniit significant increase in teachers because, hesaklill take that long before thei^ ity of those presently teatj| reach retirement age. In addition to incr® salaries, other conditionsI( er recommends toattractl quality teachers are morei for material resources, ei lion of violence and di problems in the schools ifil| increased respect and for teachers. All of wtiiclj improve the teachers’ss vironment, a primary lion for quality work, hes ne' An sell shi be I Ro La; lint hin /T AIM 12th Man Kickoff Team Persons interested in trying out for the 1984 12th Man Kickoff Team should report to the Kyle Field Dressing Room on Monday, Janu ary 30th at 5:30 pm for General Meeting. No prior experience is re quired. Rocking? Researcher says rocking babies has benefits ma United Press International WASHINGTON — In a study suggesting the rocking of babies may have more benefits that just calming an infant, a California researcher reports that premature babies placed on oscillating waterbeds have en hanced nervous system func tioning. These tiny infants showed fewer signs of irritability, were alert more often, were more re sponsive to the human face and voice and perhaps most impor tant, had fewer occasions of in terrupted breathing during sleep than similar babies who Ken’s Automotive 421 S. Main — Bryan 822-2823 ,±z “A Complete Automotive 2. Service Center’’ a CD "T3 DC • Tune-Ups . „ , ;£■ O • Clutches * Brakes § 3 • Front End Parts Replacement ** • Standard Transmission c Repairs o stayed in an ordinary incubator. Dr. Anneliese Korner, pro fessor of psychiatry and be havioral medicine at the Stan ford University School of Medi cine, said the waterbed’s gentle oscillations may mimic the maternal biological rhythms the baby experienced before birth. She noted that, unlike normal term babies, prematurely born infants usually are placed in an incubator in a hospital and thus are deprived of normal move ment stimulation similiar to that experienced before birth. Numerous studies of labora tory animals have suggested that lack of such movement after birth may impair the early de velopment of the brain. “The most gentle way I could think of providing compensa tory movement stimulation to preterms was through waterbeds,” Dr. Korner said at a seminar sponsored by the feder al Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration. The incubator waterbeds have gentle head to foot motions and also maintain a temperature just slightly higher than the air in the incubator. The fluid sup port also is easier on the babies' gentle skin. “This intervention not only helps the pre-terms behave more normally, but also — and possibly more important — makes their behavior less fright ening and more appealing to pa rents,” she said. “This is of major significance to the long-term well being of pre-term babies.” Dr. Korner said premature babies — which account for 7 percent to 10 percent of all in tan ts born in the Uniied — are particularly vulnerabi future nervous system, rial and mental healthproNi “Their biological immai at birth not only places ilia medical risk, but predispi them to behaviors that art hausting and frustratingfo rents,” she said. “Pre-term babies’disc nized movements, fragM sleep patterns and excessist ility make them difficj tabu ty . care tor. They are hank soothe and teed andlessrts sive to parents than are fulk babies. GM Computer Testing All American Cars Datsun-Honda Toyota OPEN SATURDAYS 10% Discount with Student I.D. on parts (Master Card A VISA Accepted) First Presbyterian Church 1100 Carter Creek Parkway, Bryan 823-8073 Dr. Robert Leslie, Pastor Rev. John McGarey, Associate Pastor S. SUNDAY: Worship at 8:30AM & 11:00AM Church School at 9:30AM College Class at 9:30AM I Bus from TAMU Krueger/Dunn 9:10AM Northgate 9:15AMI Youth Meeting at 5:00PM Nursery: All Events I s f- TEXAS AVI 3 o s s CARTER CREEK PKY First 4- PresbyterUn * Church .. « :s ■ ■ m i ■ i ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ LL U LLI » »If After two studies md that premature babies pkt waterbeds have fewer occai of the breathing intemij* known as apnea, Dr. Kra conducted a more deni study, comparing pi babies on water beds rorupi weeks with those assigned 1 domly to normal incubator gra vat cut jus; we< pre sid< I per sch I rui the ab< ste) f of Cor win dm yea con 12C bfte mo plai tici] noc 1 occ: pet nel< StCB 1 rod nev cha “We found that thei perimental groupdemonsm significantly more ma; motor behavior, showed ai cantly fewer signs of irrii and were more than twictl often in the visually alertiii and were significantly molt® sponsive to a human face? voices” she said. “This pilot study, whidi*:® tend to replicate, thus sugilE that compensatory moves® A si stimulation as provide ||nced waterbeds is likely to enluBu, be the neurobehavioral devdfcitce ; merit of preterm infants.' 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