The Virginian-Pilot
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Nearly 170 Virginia schools deemed “hard-to-staff” – including a dozen in Franklin, Norfolk and Portsmouth – can apply to participate in a pay-for-performance initiative designed to reward high-rated teachers.
Approved by the General Assembly earlier this year, the competitive grant program provides $3 million in state funding to designated schools for teachers who earn exemplary ratings during the 2011-12 school year.
Schools that receive the funding are required to implement a teacher-evaluation system in which student growth accounts for at least 40 percent.
The state Board of Education is set to vote on model evaluation criteria and performance standards at its April 28 meeting.
“Teachers who make a commitment to students in hard-to-staff urban and rural schools, despite circumstance that often prompt colleagues to seek assignments elsewhere, deserve our admiration, and when they succeed in raising the achievement of students in these schools, their performance should be rewarded,” Governor Bob McDonnell said in a statement released today.
When they apply for funding, school divisions can designate all or some of the teachers within a hard-to-staff school as eligible for performance pay. The max per teacher is $5,000.
The 169 eligible schools represent 57 school divisions across the state. In Hampton Roads, they include Franklin High School in Franklin; Norfolk’s Azalea Gardens Middle, Lafayette-Winona Middle, Lake Taylor Middle, Lindenwood Elementary, Madison Alternative Center, Norview Middle and Ruffner Middle; and Portsmouth’s Churchland Academy Elementary, Cradock Middle, Victory Elementary and Woodrow Wilson High.
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It's a signal, try it sometime.
Do they still have driver's "ed." ?
Let's give these teachers a 15 thousand incentive.
Testing is the problem.
How will we judge improvement, SOL Test? Bunk. This will lead to more test focused teaching and less actual learning. Check out the examples of paying the poorest (performing) schools to see how this turns out. Cheating. The poorest schools have the least experienced teachers, but that does not explain the actual testing results. Home life has more an effect than any teacher or school. Improve the parents, improve the schools. Do the "best" schools have the "best" teachers or "better parents"?
Dealing with failure
Last Sunday's New York Times' business section had an in depth article about what makes a successful CEO.
There were 6 criteria, but the one that comes to mind is the ability of dealing with crises and failures.
Interviewers liked to ask about a failure in the applicant's work history, how it was resolved and what he or she learned from the handling and outcome of that problem.
Effective business leaders learn from failure, make corrections, resolve issues and move forward with confidence. It doesn't take a lot of talent to run the company when everything is rosy.
Children who are rewarded excessively for routine tasks are missing out on the best teacher of all…adversity and dealing with failures.
wake up
until parents stop believing the grade inflated information that is sent home in the guise of progress reports and report cards then the system will not change - test your child yourself and then let all the authorities in your school and your legislative representatives know how poorly or how well your child's school is performing
purchase books that help you determine your child's abilities - a good series for elementary aged children are the "What your __________ grader needs to know." edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.
Use the ACT study prep books for older kids, evaluate your child's abilities and then locate help on the internet. There are a plethora of advanced math, statistics, science, and liberal arts tutorials available.
other states
Have we researched what other states and cities have down, in regards to merit based pay???? NYC has a unique merit based pay charter-system.
Parents and teachers
I would like to see a rating scale listing the most relevant parenting skills and rate the parents of my students, then apply that rating AT LEAST equally to my ability to move their student beyond their current level of understanding.
When parents participate, students learn. When parents pull the plug on the electronic monsters (Cable TV, XBox, hand-held games, etc.)children will not only have little else to but schoolwork, they might actually go outside and use their IMAGINATIONS, the little known and poorly understood American SECRET WEAPON.
Don't offer me a reward to teach students; I am already teaching at my max. I need involved parents that send students school ready to learn, follow through at home, and are part of the solution.
been teaching
Has a fire service instructor I can't tell you what its like to teach in a high school but i can tell you what its like dealing with some of the kids they turn out!
what we are turning out are a bunch of kids who all think they are special.
Almost all of them think that you are there to serve them, very few of them have gumption drive or raw guts
you get kids coming out of high school who don't have a grasp on basic 8th grade science or math.
the kids that come out of schools now days are great at using an xbox but when it comes to hard work and critical thinking they are lacking big time
its not just the schools its the home too, kids are not raised like they used to be they are coddled and told how special they are
You are right about the excessive praise
From what I understand it is DEMANDED that teachers CONSTANTLY praise children for every little thing on the assumption that this will make them feel better about themselves and therefore behave better and learn more. The reality is that praise becomes routine and expected for things like showing up for class and breathing, and the kids feel like they are ENTITLED to more praise for doing very little. The concept of motivation and reward for extra effort and great accomplishments is lost when there is no minimal standard for praise and recognition.
Really.....
And here's one...in my school, if we check an area for improvement...we HAVE to add a positive comment. So if a kid needs to stop talking and focus on his/her work or turn in their homework or improve their attitude...we have to check a positive comment...even though most of those are the reasons the kid isn't succeeding.
Absolutely
The kid that stays with me gets some type of reward at school almost every day that he is not so disruptive that he gets punished. I’m sure the teacher means well and is probably paying for the treats with her own money but all this does is propitiate the quest for mediocrity.