Lauren Esposito argues against tying teacher pay to student performance in The Battalion:
There has been much debate recently over whether or not teachers' salaries should be partially based on their students' progress in standardized tests. Many teachers are rightfully outraged by the idea that their incomes may be affected by standardized test scores and childrens' opinions of their classes.
Why should they be "rightfully outraged" at their income being tied to a measure of their effectiveness and a measure of student satisfaction? Granted, both of these measures contain error, but I find it hard to believe that both test scores and student opinion are completely unrelated to teacher quality, and I believe in higher pay for better quality.
Currently, teacher salaries are based on experience and education. Though it may seem natural to base a salary increase on the performance of a given teacher, student grades may not be directly related to their teacher's ability. This could hurt certain teachers more than others - regardless of their teaching ability - by giving an insufficient raise to some of them, and more than what is deserved to others.
Wait, now we're talking grades, and not test scores. Which is it? I don't believe in tying grades to salary because the teacher has complete control over grades, and can give every student an A. When grade inflation comes into play, grades are indeed not related to teacher ability.
If this new pay scale is indeed going to be set in place, the school districts and their locations need to be taken into account when the teachers are being observed and the final scores are being calculated.
If the teacher is in a lower income area, the test scores of their students may not, historically speaking, be as high as the scores of those students residing in more affluent school districts. One cannot help but wonder if the teachers who took on a challenge by trying to bring quality education to a poorer area are going to be penalized for doing so. If teachers' pay is based on student performance, this scenario seems feasible.
Yes, but to "take on a challenge" means, in my mind, that these teachers want to help students in poorer areas improve. Change in test scores is one way to assess that improvement. If a teacher decides to teach at a poor school, but her students finish the school year no better than they began, why reward the teacher for being motivated but ineffective?
The National Education Association, the country's largest teachers' union, does not support tying teacher pay to student scores, said Tom Blanford, associate director for teacher quality. Such a plan could ignore the kind of performance that doesn't show up in test scores, such as a teacher who prevents a child from dropping out or one who inspires excellence in poetry.
Why is it assumed that neither of these qualities would show up in test scores? A student who is encouraged to stay in school would do so, I imagine, if school became meaningful to him, and I fail to see why that wouldn't transfer to better grades and scores. A student who becomes excellent in poetry is going to have a good grasp of the English language, and will do fine on the verbal standardized tests.
It's not that I don't appreciate the intangibles that teachers do for students; it's not an easy thing to get students interested in Chauncer, or geometry, or plate techtonics. I just don't believe we should all assume that there are thousands of wonderful teachers who inspire their students yet don't teach them to read or do basic math.
With the teachers' increase in pay being primarily based on test scores, it would give them no reason to interact with the students in any other way than to just cram basic material into their heads in preparation for a standardized test. This is not the type of education that is helpful for children in schools now and in the future. The teacher who is able to reach the child, and unlock his or her imagination or a dream is more worthy of a pay raise than one who can make students retain point-specific information.
The idea that dreams are incompatible with facts is a false dichotomy, and I doubt Ms. Esposito could come up with any "dream" - to be a poet, to be an architect, to be a doctor - that doesn't involve the need to retain a whole lot of specific information. A child with no information is a dreamer, but not a doer. And a child who never learns that basic information (which can be taught without "cramming," by the way) isn't going to go anywhere with their imagination (which children seem to have a great deal of without teacher input.)
According to the Teacher Quality Bulletin, a survey done by Public Agenda found that 51 percent of parents want teachers in their district to receive monetary rewards if their students consistently perform well on the tests.
Would the parents also want the teachers' pay to be docked if their students did not perform on a standardized test at a level that they chose?
My guess would be yes, because those parents are employed in jobs where their pay is tied to their performance, and those parents want to see their kids do well. And they don't quite understand why a year of teaching ineffectively should count as another year of experience towards higher pay.
It comes down to the fact that if the students put forth a sufficient amount of effort, their teachers would receive a raise at the end of the year because, in theory, the students will then do well on their standardized test and demonstrate the ability of the teachers at their school. But even if the students do score well, and the teacher is able to get a raise, there really is much more to rating a "quality" teacher than a few standardized test scores, and that should be taken into consideration.
Well, yes. There are other things to take into account. A teacher who raises test scores but is a bully who scares her kids is not a good teacher. But a teacher who is all about dreams and imagination and love who leaves her students illiterate is not a good teacher, either. Ignorning test scores entirely, and refusing to tie any sort of effectiveness measure to teacher pay, means that students will remain at the mercy of teachers who disdain learning actual facts and skills. If Ms. Esposito is to believed, there is plenty of disdain for factual information in the teaching profession.
Posted by kswygert at January 28, 2004 08:26 PM