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Show i Salary not only factor in holding good teachers Good classroom teachers are not attracted and held solely by salary considerations, although adequate financial compensation is necessary to attain these objectives, according to Utah Foundation, the private, nonprofit non-profit research organization. "It appears improbable and perhaps undesirable that the public schools will be able to compete for talent with industry on the basis of salary considerations," con-siderations," the Foundation states in a research report released this week. "What the schools want and must have are qualified, dedicated teachers who want to teach and who will teach if they are given adequate remuneration. One who chooses teaching only on the basis of comparative salary is always likely to leave the profession if a better offer comes along. "That teacher salary is not the determining factor in educational quality has been shown in recent years when student achievement has declined while average teacher salaries-adjusted salaries-adjusted for inflation have steadily risen." Utah schools, and those of the nation, are showing growing concern with improving the quality of education provided in the public schools. High quality classroom teaching is a key ingredient of a high quality educational product. Many professional educators believe that educational quality will be a major issue in the 1980s, as equality of educational opportunity was a major concern of the 1960s and 1970s. The president of the U.S. Council for the Advancement and Support of Education has said that "confusion between the concept of equality of rights and that of equality of results may be at the root of many of our current problems. In similar vein, Utah's commissioner of higher education points out that "equality of educational opportunity must not blind us to individual difference to attitude and achievement nor serve as an excuse ex-cuse for slackening standards of performance. per-formance. ..Strong emphasis on minimum competencies presents the danger of minimums becoming norms." |