Nope
Wrong. This approach makes no sense in education. Yes, it works in business, but only because you have complete control over the most important aspects of achievement in business. Does your average ad exec want his pay tied to whether or not GM had breakfast the morning of the publicity launch? Does the weapon systems design department at Lockheed-Martin deal with whether or not the nuke broke up with her boyfriend the night before the Autocrat turns out to check out the new missile? Nope. But we do. End of story.
posted by Buckwalter at 9:21 AM
2 Comments:
Well said, BW. While I'm not a teacher, and don't know if there is some good associated with merit pay for teachers, this approach is clearly near-sighted.
"Those rewards are to be based mainly on test scores..." (Right from the article) I think this is another flaccid attempted at fixing the NCLB initiative. The best teachers are the ones the kids have fun with and relate to, NOT ones who only help them cough up test answers. Can any of us remember a robotic teacher that actually made a difference in our lives? I think not.
Right on, brother. I can say from teaching in Japan, where test scores are top priority, that waving a dollar bill in front of a teacher for teaching to the test does not help education. While I wish there were a good way to give more money to good teachers, it's hard to come up with a sure fire way. But good teachers usually are attracted to the job because the love the job. And that may doom teachers to a low salary for eternity...
Who's up for Oreoss and a rerun of The Goonies? I know I am.
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