Before I start my rant, I want to say 'thank you' to all the magnificent teachers out there. Thank you for your commitment, dedication and the hard work you do. You are the selfless givers and mentors of our most precious assets, our children. I have the utmost respect and admiration for the difficult job you do and financial sacrifices you make. I salute you! If you know anyone who is a teacher, tell them 'thank you', let them know how important their work is and how much they are appreciated. Frankly, these are the devoted people that spend more time interacting with our children than we do. Think about it...where would any of us be had it not been for our teachers?
Unfortunately, teaching is a thankless job. I am not, nor have I ever been, a teacher. It hurts me to see how our teachers are, in my opinion, being vilified and become the scapegoats for the ailments in our society. We should be striving to give all our teachers and schools the best technologies, tools and resources available. But this isn't the case. Instead, educational resources always seem to be amongst the first casualties in budget cuts, teachers are blamed for failing schools and faced with steadily rising expectations to perform at accelerated levels with little or no recognition. The vilification of our educators is disheartening.
There's been a lot of discussion lately about teacher 'pay-for performance', based on state test scores and student performance. Some school districts across the country want to implement this type of compensation system and some already have. My opinion? I can not conceptualize how tying teachers salaries to student test scores can accurately measure a teachers performance. No matter how good a teacher is, there will always be children that don't do well due to extenuating circumstances that affect their performance (e.g. problems at home, social issues, undiagnosed learning disorders, parental support, health). There are also children who are focused, do well and know their work but simply just don't test well. Teaching is not like factory production line, children don't learn in a linear procession line. Then there's the old expression; 'You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.'
I'll leave the decision making on this issue to the teachers and those in the education business. It just doesn't seem to be fair to teachers, it's a dysfunctional and perverse incentive system that makes them accountable for and punishes them for things they can not control. If anything, this kind of plan sounds like it could be a deterrent for those considering careers in teaching. If there are any teachers reading this, please let me know what you think of P4P. I'm for whatever you think is best...just don't stop doing what you're doing!
Now, there is one area where I'd love to see a pay-for-performance system implemented....Congress. They are well paid to obstruct progress, hold up legislation and impede economic incentives for the country. Maybe they'd get some real work done if their pay was measured by productivity, which is currently batting zero.
~ JJBlogster ~
