I still don’t get how merit pay can work for teachers. The teacher who gets to teach AP courses filled with motivated and intelligent students will always look better on a merit sheet than the teacher who’s stuck with the sweathogs.
That’s the problem - merit is extremely hard to measure in that field. The solution? I have no idea, and I’ve given it a great deal of thought. Even popular teachers who are liked by kids, by parents, or by the principal are not necessarily great teachers in the sense that their kids actually learn “better” (whatever that means for each field).
but the big problem I see is that merit pay is on top of already inflated wages/benefits/pensions....
people in business get bonuses...teachers and nurses and cops and firemen do not....(among that group, the only group that usually doesn't get a defined pension plan are the nurses)
Precisely why I don’t like the idea much. That, and knowing that any such merit will generally accrue to the teachers who kiss the principal’s butt the most. Or, those who are most left-wing, etc.
“I still don’t get how merit pay can work for teachers. The teacher who gets to teach AP courses filled with motivated and intelligent students will always look better on a merit sheet than the teacher who’s stuck with the sweathogs.”
Please quit being logical, you will give a lot of people heartburn. Didn’t you know that everyone comes to kindergarten these days can count to 100 and know their ABC’s. If you don’t the Federal/State government education experts say so. If not ask Bobby Jindal, he says so. It’s the fault of public education.