What is the Fairest Way to Pay Our Teachers?

It is indisputable that not all teachers are equal. There are those teachers who are walking out the door as soon as their "contractually obligated time" is up whether that be b/c they teach a subject that is not as "labor intensive" in terms of grading or they simply choose to do so.

I watch my husband walk out the door and come back 10-12 hours later; this does not even include the loads of work he does at home.

A system needs to be put in place that will objectively assess teacher's performance so that those teachers who are consistently going above and beyond are compensated. Those teachers that are resistant to this should take a long hard look in the mirror and ask themselves if their effort level or resolve has dwindled.

We currently have a system which favors seniority not performance and this is not recipe that supports excellence in the classroom.

I have been a teacher, research, and now work as a consultant around educational policy. This is an incredibly challenging problem in terms of fair implementation. However, we tend to compare "merit" solutions to what we think of as perfection or absolute fairness. Rather, we should be comparing merit approaches to what we have now, which could be one of the most poorly designed systems for raising student achievement and incentivizing great teaching.
Scott

What continuing educations is required of our teachers? How do we insist on excellence for this profession? As a physician, I am required to go to continued education conferences/course for 50 hours each year. Every few years I must retake my original Board Examination in my specialty! (Imagine asking our lawyers to retake their Bar Exams every few years) A teacher's education is very limited and not ongoing as far as I can see. Pay should be based on seniority and ongoing proof of excellence. I am so impressed with the substandard expectations and outcomes of teacher training requirements. This trickles down to the poor levels of performance of our students.

Why do we use standardized testing to evaluate students if they aren't reliable enough to use for our teachers?

NH, as a state, does not value education. Look at how we pay for it. We've created a system where children are regarded as the enemy, and we perpetuate that in the way we pay our teachers. Whose job is more important? The person who teaches your kid to read, or a guy who hits a ball with a stick? The guy with the stick gets paid a whole lot more money.

We badly need to evaluate how we do education, since we're working on a model from the 1940's. But until we change the way we pay for education, it's never going to be valued, it's only going to be fought about.

Listening to the program on the drive to work, here is what came to mind:

1) without trying to offend, the fact that a number of teachers that called in had a very difficult time making or expressing a clear point, as well as Mr. Bramante, is disturbing and just tells me about their incompetency. If you are a teacher, I expect you to be able to communicate clearly and to the point.

2) the biggest problem we face is not necessarily the teacher pay but rather the number of students assigned to one teacher (student:teacher ratio). you could be a super teacher, but if you have 45-50 kids to guide, it is not going to happen.

3) it is very difficult to establish merit pay because you first have to have a means to measure the teachers success. what will be used to measure such success? the student grades? (the teacher would just make the class easier or give more breaks), the std achievement tests? teachers and school manipulate the system. Example, my kids don't get any homework the periods when there are achievement tests, so that they are "rested", and other kids not taking the tests are not allowed in the school until later time in the day so that the kids taking the tests are "undisturbed".

3) 2nd biggest problem is that the base avg. pay for a teacher is no where near what "the good teachers" could be making out in the private sector. so many good teachers leave for better pay or don't even consider teaching. example, the superintendent for the nashua school system just took a job in Andover for a bit better pay.

4) 3rd problem is that teachers don't get fired for lack of performance because there is no sound way to measure performance. so everything is don't just to get by, like the government agencies.

Overlooked in this conversation was the irony that we are evaluating our kids based on test scores only. Why is it turned into more when we are talking about something to do with an adult? We are talking about evaluating the teacher with more than just the test score-but the irony seems to be lost that that is the only way we evaluate the kids. If it is wrong for the adult-shouldnt it also be wrong for the kid?
Another thing that struck me about the conversation is that WE ARE CREATING A PRODUCT! We are creating the future generation-maybe it is a bad way to say it, but they are already treated like a product. We grade them, we put IEPs together when they are "faulty"-we evaluate them BLINDLY based on standardized testing. This is what we do with a product. If the teachers are not comfortable being evaluated only with a standardized test score-then that should be a HUGE WAKE UP CALL about standardized testing!!!
I think with input the process will change. Working with models like the Kearsage Regional School District-and taking pieces from programs that work and take all sides into consideration. I hope that what comes out of this debate is a more fair way to evaluate children as well. What is good for one group should be taken into account for the other.

Although evaluating student performance is a complex, multi-variable process, assume a valid method of measuring student performance, as a basis for establishing merit pay for teachers.

I would accept performance pay, but are the authorities willing to give the teacher sufficient control: for example,
1. The teacher chooses the textbook.
2. The teacher chooses the methodology.
3. The teacher feels that three students
need to stay after school for an hour
for some tutoring.
4. The teacher has control over a budget for
the purchasing of materials.

A coaching analogy is applicable. A school hires a football coach, but they do not tell him/her what kind of offensive scheme to use, or who to select as the starting quarterback. If the quarterback is not operating, he may be benched for awhile. Are school districts willing to give a classroom teacher such autonomy?