I have never hidden my feeling regarding the public school system in Texas; in most areas I think it is a joke. And those feelings have led me to consider home schooling my children because I feel that the public school system does a disservice to the students because there is too much pressure on test results.
Standardized testing is a necessary evil of the public school system, and a factor that colleges refer to when accepting incoming freshman students. Now Texas has pushed it one step further by rewarding teachers for improved test scores on the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) test and other factors.
Ultimately it is up to each district who is involved in the program to award the monies distributed to its teachers. And by the way it sounds; everyone could get a bonus if the test scores improve. So instead of actually improving the education, the students are just learning to memorize information that they will be tested on and can regurgitate the information to help increase the over all scores in the area. That to me does not translate to a better education but teaching students how to take tests and forget what they learned.
In my opinion merit based pay should be based on the teachers’ ability to teach the subject and engage the students. After all I think there are those people who teach just so they can have the summer off, and could really care less about what they are doing and whether or not their students learn anything. That does a horrible disservice to students across the board and later in life.
How much is this “bonus” actually going to change how a teach approaches a subject, if they are only getting a one time bonus of $1,000 or a little bit more? Is that worth it to those teachers who fit the criteria and qualify for the program? What amount would get a teacher to change? After all if a regular employee at company XYZ put in the minimal effort and the company overall did better, would the CEO want to award a bonus to that individual for their lack of effort? I do not think so.
Let’s start to improve out educational system by hiring teachers who care about teaching and having the students learn to further enrich their lives. Teachers who want to see the students succeed and continue on in their education to a college level or beyond. Standard tests do not make the entire student as a whole, and are not always the best gauge at a student’s ability. Many other factors are involved and educators across the board should consider this when planning the education of future generations.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Merit based pay
Posted by Allison and Ben at 2:42 PM
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3 comments:
preach it baby. I agree. so does brian. He read it and understands totally. brian thinks he has only had a handful of teachers who care. some i think should take a hike. the ubsct test which I think is the test to leave high school here in ut. if they pass it then they are done. if not they take it up to two more times (totalling 3) if on the 3rd time they do not pass on the third time no big deal they still graduate. Not sure I explaned that well or not. Have mixed feelings on this whole pass a test to graduate to begin with and then the whole but you don't pass but you can graduate any how. Doesn't make too much since to me.
Amen Sista! Now if you can tell me how to get that change done, I'm in. *sigh* I feel like there are a few good teachers still out there, but they are few and far between. It infuriates me, yet I feel my hands are tied. I wish we had the option to have ownership over our own tax dollars and "shop" for where we feel our kids would receive the best education. Put a little competition out there and I think you would see a big improvement. Yes, there would still be the ultimate lure of the money, however, the end result would be a more quality education (in theory) for your child. For most people with more than one child, private school is just not an option. Ugh!
I agree...homeschool.
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