Grades are hardly the only way to measure merit. Most people proposing merit pay systems are smarter than you think they are.
Every way I have seen proposed includes student progress as measured by standardized tests, quality and amount of tedious paperwork and lesson plans required of the teachers, and high-stakes classroom observations.
Any one of the three measures above could be used either for or against a particular teacher. If the administration wants to favor a teacher, all he needs to do is fill the teacher’s classes with the best students. To get rid of a teacher to make room for the administrator’s cousin (or more likely a coach’s wife) the administrator can fill the classes with the worst students. Either way will generally give the administrator’s desired results for two out of the three criteria. The paperwork schemes I’ve seen are always subjective enough for plenty of grading leeway.
Don’t think for a minute that this kind of thing doesn’t happen. I’ve seen it too many times.
So we make them selected at random or by someone else.
Trib is reporting that a tentative agreement has been reached; final details to be ironed out tomorrow and the agreement put to the union for a vote on Sunday. If it passes, the strike is over as of Monday.
And the schools will improve?
Kicking the can down the road and spending money the city doesn’t have.
Thing is, it’s the city’s responsibility to make sure they HAVE the money that they agreed in writing to give.
I just want to kick in the screen on my tv every time I see Tiny Dancer patting himself on the back because the strike is over.
I want to see Karen Lewis swallow him whole.
There is something about Education Admins…
Sure you have bad bosses in industry but, from my experience, most bosses I have had or seen have been pretty good. Competent, focused etc. Yes, they are interested in advancing but, on the whole, are decent and competent.
Education, on the other hand, seems to attract a certain type. I don’t know if it attracts a certain type of personality or the job/surroundings create this personality but many school admins seem vindictive, controlling, authoritarian and, worse of all, “empire builders”. Empire Builders are not happy just running a school, they need to have you subserviant and they need to have you loyal to THEM which means they need to be the one that hired you and so on. They relish the idea of trashing peoples’ careers and being all-purpose assholes.
My thoughts are that admins tend to come from failed teachers. Great teachers want to stay in the classrooms. The old saying of “Those that do…do. Those that can’t…teach. Those that can’t teach…administrate”. Therefore, they are not the cream of the crop to start. Put them in a position where they have to run a school and put up with huge amounts of crap from the public with probably not the greatest salary and not a huge amount of upward mobility and then give them power over a large group of teachers and you get a recipe for asshole creation.
I went through 2 of them when I was in teaching…and both times I lucked out because one time the admin hired me and seemed to like me so I was safe. The other one I just lucked out and was liked by her. In both cases I thought they were terrible admins and human beings.
I would go so far as to say probably >50% of school admins are probably of this ilk. These positions need to be destroyed, not given more power over teachers. They are part of ‘what is wrong’ with education.
Admins should be DRAFTED from the best teachers. The ones that don’t want to do the job would probably be the best at it.
Denuciadó…er…informó?
(No, I obviously don’t speak Spanish…but I do know how to use the Report function, and I did.)