I think this is great out of the box thinking about teacher compensation

No, the idea is far from fleshed out. Don't get bogged in the details, but consider the concept. I think it is an idea with some real merit.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5271810

But - what if this sets a precedent for other professions?

Just a thought

... a teacher's "success".

I'm not saying yes or no

But it comes down to whether a financial price tag should be tied to every event. Maybe it should - I don't know.

The execs at AIG were getting "bonuses" for every deal they made, without consideration for the quality (or efficacy) of the deal--just the fact that one generated a bonus check.

It seems for some people financial price tags are tied to every event.

For teaching and other union workers? Not so much.

The best teacher cannot teach hungry kids in leaking buildings with no resources.

But let's just keep focusing on a merit pay system that nobody has proposed in the first place.

:crazy:

It must be tough to live in a black and white, two dimensional world

Your comment smells all too much like straw ......

Your post is shit. I am so sick of the non-debate on education that gets focused around merit pay that nobody is proposing when there are very real problems in schools and very real kids who are suffering.

The fact is, the attitude of the teachers here at DU is exactly what parents have been complaining about for years. They say they want parental involvement - but the second that involvement includes questioning their techniques, well then it's a whole different story and you're quickly shown the door.

Or otherwise ridiculed and denigrated.

there ya go ... serious discussion

You seemed smarter than to believe we could implement a system that would track millions of people back to 50 teachers and divide up 1% commission and have it go where it should - and that the 2 teachers who made the difference would get the same as the bad ones - so what the hell difference would the commission make anyway.

Serious??

I choose to believe you weren't serious at all so I won't have to think less of you.

I endorsed a discussion ...... I didn't endorse the plan. I also said it was an example of out of the box thinking. Again ... no endorsement. I also said it was a worthy idea, but yet again, no endorsement ..... but you go ahead and rant.

:eyes:

That's interesting, but I doubt there are many parents who do this.

Nonetheless, the problem with education in America today is not between the teachers and the parents, but with the overall system.

It's too easy to pit one against the other, while ignoring the bigger picture.

are still hungry, families still broken, school facilities are still sucky, etc.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/09/09/dc.schools/index.html

i like the fact that she fired some principals. school systems need management overhauls.

recruiting new teachers - doing all sorts of things besides sitting around with her thumb up her ass talking about a merit pay system that isn't being proposed.

Sorry, I'm not into slavery.

In 1977, when I graduated, it had a few hundred seniors graduate.

Four in my graduating class went to college. I'm including community college. It scored a bit below average on the standardized test. It had no calculus class, it cancelled 1st year French and 5th year Spanish. It had no AP courses, which I hadn't even heard of when I got to college. My chemistry class was covered in the first two weeks in college chemistry, my physics class was covered in the first week in college physics. It had two algebra I classes and one algebra II class. Across the county another school taught general chemistry and had a year of organic chemistry, their physics required calculus.

Teachers clawed, whined, and fought to transfer out (or they realized they were so incompetent they dared not transfer out).

Just at that time the local economy was collapsing. The primary local employer went from 35k workers to 600. By the early '80s most workers had moved or were planning on moving. As a different class of people moved in, a lot of retirees took advantage of the house prices to sell and move as well.

By 1985 my high school had AP calculus, AP chemistry and AP physics. It taught Latin and French and Spanish. 80% of the students took algebra II, and over 70% of them went to college, and I'm excluding community college.

Those teachers who remained from when I attended were the incompetent ones, and they were found ways to retire or leave. The parents had the school designated a charter school for environmental issues.

What happened? Teacher certification requirements increased? New, additional standardized tests? New teaching methods? Nope. New students. Instead of having parents who said General Math 10 was all the math you'd ever need and college was a waste of time, there were parents pushing their kids to pass the AP Calculus test and simply expecting them to go to college.

Now, my teachers could have worked harder to motivate students. They'd be fighting the culture, fighting the parents, fighting in '77 just to reach the achievement levels attained by the slacker 25% in '85. In '85 the teachers would properly focus on the minority of students who needed motivation, discipline, etc.

So, under your system, my teachers in '77 would have been punished not because of what they did, but because of the students and their backgrounds. The teachers in '85 would have been rewarded not because of what they did, but because of the students and their backgrounds. Until this kind of discrepancy is taken into account in a merit-based system, I have to say I think it's a great idea in theory, but unworkable in practice.

..... "my system".

To be knowledgeable about tomorrow

California, before Prop 13, used to have a policy that teachers could take classes at Community Colleges and some Universities for free just to keep up. That died a long time ago