Posted on 01/11/2006 3:22:36 PM PST by Pharmboy
HOUSTON (AP) -- Houston is about to become the biggest school district in the nation to tie teachers' pay to their students' test scores.
School Superintendent Abe Saavedra wants to offer teachers as much as $3,000 more per school year if their students improve on state and national tests. The program could eventually grow to as much as $10,000 in merit pay.
The school board is set to vote on the plan Thursday. Five of the nine board members have said they support it.
"School systems traditionally have been paying the best teacher the same amount as we pay the worst teacher, based on the number of years they have been teaching," Saavedra said. "It doesn't make sense that we would pay the best what we're paying the worst. That's why it's going to change."
Opponents argue that the plan focuses too much on test scores and would be unfair to teachers outside core subjects.
Other school districts have adopted such programs in recent years. Denver, with 73,000 students, took such a step in November, becoming the biggest district to do so. Houston, with more than 200,000 students, is the nation's seventh-largest district.
Denver's program and others measure teacher performance not just on standardized test scores, but also on their subject certifications and other factors.
Traditionally, Houston teachers' experience and education levels have determined their pay scale. Starting teachers make about $36,000 a year. Salaries can rise to about $45,000 with advanced degrees and more experience.
Texas has no collective bargaining, meaning the teachers union can lobby the district for raises but cannot strike.
The Houston Federation of Teachers feels the plan is being forced on employees, said Gayle Fallon, the union's president.
"This plan is nothing but test scores," she said. "It's not well thought-out."
But for Monica Ramirez - a kindergarten teacher for Spanish-speaking students and the district's teacher of the year in 2004-05 - merit pay is an incentive.
"If we are not motivated, we cannot motivate our children," she said.
The plan is divided into three sections, with as much as $1,000 in bonus pay each.
The first would award bonuses to all teachers in schools rated acceptable or higher, based on scores on the state's main standardized test. The second ties pay to student improvement on a standardized test that compares performance to nationwide norms.
In the third section, reading and math teachers whose students fare well compared with others in the district would be eligible for bonuses.
Bonuses for all sections will be given only if students show improvement in the top half of scores.
Fallon said the plan is unfair to teachers in such subjects as art and music.
Saavedra expects the plan to cost $14.5 million the first year and increase by
you teach fundamentals FIRST, the cramming comes LAST to meet the test requirements... ban ALL calculators to start with until they get to geometry.
Re your post #14, 2nd paragraph - LOL... :)
One of my dearest friends is a Spanish language teacher in a local high school. She is hard working and until this past year approached her job enthusiastically. She is not a pushover and does not give away grades. If students fail to turn in work or are disruptive she is proactive and is on the phone trying to contact parents. All to no avail. The promotion of her old Principal brought in a new one. This one is also looking to be promoted. New rules include no disciplining of students with detentions. Touchy, feely sympathy is to be used when a student under performs. Students who are disruptive and are sent to the Principal are sent back to the teacher and she is told to learn to deal with it. Parents routinely do not back her up when she needs help with their student. Parents only seem to respond when little Jonny or Julie get an F. Then they are out in force to hold the teacher responsible.
My friend is so stressed out, her nerves are shot and she feels humiliated by the administration of the school. They are now watching her teaching methods to see why she is giving too many F's. She arrives at school at 7 AM and leaves at 6:30 or 7 PM pretty much everyday. She is an excellent educator and until the new administrator arrived was praised for her teaching methods and actually through discipline was able to inspire some failing students to strive to do better.
It has become a numbers game. It doesn't matter if the students are learning. Most of the teachers are teaching to the tests being given. True accountability lies not only with the teachers, but with the students and their parents.
My friend is looking to get out of teaching once her son finishes high school next year. It truly is a loss of an excellent teacher.
Renegade, applause for your post.
It's a no win situation for both the teachers and the students. Sad to say there's not much incentive to become a teacher anymore. The low wages are the least of the problem. They are hampered by parents who are either apathetic or overbearing, students who show no respect at best, and are violent at worst, courts who hamper a teacher's efforts at discipline to protect the little darling's right to misbehave, and administrators who are often into self aggrandizement and have forgotten the real reason we have schools is for education.
Awwwwrighty then everybody gets an A+ now where's my check ?;o)
Sad and frustrating.
If only the parents realized that they are failing their kids. But they don't or wont.
And you really can't blame the kids. It is in their nature to resist authority. Starts at about 2 years of age.
Rule number one: you have to put up a united front -- mom, dad, teacher/school. Otherwise, kids will play one against the other.
That doesn't mean that you accept everything that the school says or does. Just that it is important that, from the kid's perspective, you are unified and unyielding. You can discuss details in private.
Of course, it is tough if the parents are divorced or one or both are gone. But that is still no excuse to not be unified.
and we can thank the TEACHERS UNION and the RATS for that...
Don't think I would like to stake my paycheck on the performance of a group of 6 year olds. How can this be a good thing?
It is hard to go to school and take sides with the teacher against your child at times, but it is important to do this when your child is clearly wrong. If you feel a teacher is picking on your child, take them aside privately and discuss your concerns. It is important that this be done out of the presence of your child. Otherwise you undermine the united front you need to have to get the child to: get to school on time, do the assignments and behave in class.
Believe me, I had to deal with some real loser teachers at times over the years, but I always tried to maintain patience and a professional attitude in dealing with the situation. My daughter is in college now and I notice she displays the same patience - even in the face of the most liberal idiots teaching at her university.
But, if some of these kids get to feel that there is someone out there who thinks they can achieve and sets some standards and goals, it has got to be better than the current situation.
Make that: Re your post #26
We haven't crossed paths since the Florida governor's race threads.
I was, of course, thrilled to see your man won.
I see the problem of linking students' test scores to teachers' pay as one of fundamental unfairness. The teachers do not have control over whether their students learn.
When I taught, 25% of my students routinely failed my class, on average. Some of them failed because I caught them cheating on tests (automatic F). Others failed because they did not study or do the homework or see me if they needed help.
I was lucky, because the administration backed me up, even though I had the highest failure rate of any teacher in the school. I was also lucky because I taught algebra and accounting, and the numbers don't lie. There was no subjective grading to take into account.
That was nearly 20 years ago. I shudder to think of what would happen to me if the same type of thing occurred today.
OTOH, when you have teachers actually teaching the material that will be on the test, at least the students have some knowledge of the most important things they should know.
For example, if a student needs to know how to choose a topic sentence from a paragraph, or how to write a 5-paragraph essay, or how to do long division, that can be taught. The student's test grade should reflect his knowledge and understanding of what s/he is taught.
In theory, the tests are of information that is the core of what every student should have learned. In theory because I have no idea whether it is true or not.
The tests, I think, are supposed to reflect what the child is taught in the classroom, not the other way around. If this is actually the case, that would be a good thing. If not, then I can see why some teachers would teach based on material covered in the test, just to make sure they had their bases covered.
Re your post #35 - Hi TontoKowalski! Thanks for your nice post to me. Yes, he won, and he could win a 3rd term for governor, if 3rd terms were allowed in this state. I am sure a lot of people will miss him when he leaves office in Jan 2007. Hope you are well! :)
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