Would rewarding teachers with bonus pay based on student achievement raise student test scores?
Laura
- 05/23/2011 02:53
I really appreciate all the comments and the hard work put in by teachers in todays society. I have been teaching 7 years in 3 different schools, and out of all those teachers, I would have to say maybe 1 or 2 didn't work to the best of their abilities and should't teach. I work at a low-income, urban middle school. If teachers were paid based on student achievement, there would be few teachers that would choose to work at my school. Yet, this has been the most dedicated, hardest working staff at any job I have ever had. Teachers are there early and stay late, they work hard to create meaningful, relevant lessons, and they go above and beyond what most people do in their professional careers. Here Doctor, go perform this surgery without any updated equipment or support staff. We are going to pay you way less than you are worth, and we want you to fix the heart that was already broken even though you are just operating on the brain. We are going to put up every obstacle you can think of, you have to fill out an enormous amount of paperwork, and people who have never been in your position are going to tell you how to operate. Then, if those judges like the way you do your job, and your patient can pass all our tests that really can't measure if everything works properly now, then maybe we will give you a little more money. We will not respect you, your abilities, your education, or your decision making, and your patients and their families may or may not be thankful even if you have done everything you possibly can.
Somehow I don't think the doctors would accept that, why are we expected to?
C. Angell
- 04/02/2011 00:10
Everyone should be more responsible. There are some wonderful teachers, simply wonderful. But in every walk of life there are those who should not be in the profession they are in....I have witnessed a few
C. Angell
- 04/02/2011 00:01
This would cause cheating among the teachers because they want to keep their jobs. Lets try games on the computer which is the wave of now and children learn enthusiastically...
csv
- 03/31/2011 04:17
if test scores are attached to teacher evaluations or anything that determined pay or job status you are asking teachers to go into survival mode. It would not surprise me in the least if mass episodes cheating began. The pressure to get high test results has already resulted in cheating in schools all over the country from privately run charters and regular public schools as well as at the state level and the local districts. I remember and miss the days when the focus was on the student's learning and becoming good critical thinkers,not expert test takers.
Shannon
- 03/21/2011 14:28
Wow!! I can't believe Janine! Absolutely absurd! In my first two years of teaching (when I had no children, no husband, no LIFE), I stayed everyday after school for 2 hours tutoring, came in for tutoring almost every Saturday for 4 hours, paid for field trips out of my own pocket, and basically ran myself into the ground trying to "make the constant calls" and make sure each child had my complete attention and commitment. And though it raised their test scores to some degree, they were still failing. When you teach kids who deal with violence and poverty on a daily level, the odds are stacked against them, and it's like trying to hold back the ocean with your hands. Do I feel like a failure because my students didn't pass a standardized tests? No, because my students have returned time and time again to tell me how I was one of the only positive influences in their life at the time. They tell me that I helped them believe in themselves and to feel proud of their accomplishments. Now, eight years later, I teach in a more affluent neighborhood, and I'm even more convinced of how ridiculous it is to imply that students are failing because of lack of effort on the part of the teacher. I do half of the work I did in my other school, and most of my students score at the proficient or advanced level of the standardized tests. That's not to say that I don't give my full effort to teaching them, but I now have two small children that require all of my spare time. I don't have the luxury of teaching an extra two hours a day and four hours on Saturday, in addition to all of the paperwork and grading that needs to be done. It is disgusting that so many people think that teachers just sit on their behinds and do nothing all day long. I had several jobs before teaching, and at any given time worked two of those jobs simultaneously while attending college full time. And I have never been as exhausted at the end of the day as I am after a day of teaching. It is the most challenging job I've ever had in my life, and one of the most rewarding. To degrade our profession to a simple matter of "bribery" is not only ridiculous, it's disgusting.
