Comments on: Obama a Republican? President Parts with Democrats on School Improvement Measures

By: Brittany

Brittany — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:17:34 +0000

I think that the idea of Merit pay is ridiculous. There are good teachers, that just happen to teach difficult classes, and there are bad teachers that just happen to teach easy classes. So is this idea really going to award the PE teacher with money while the AP Physics teacher is getting nothing even though their doing what they’re supposed to? I don’t think this is a good idea at all.

By: Ron Weakley

Ron Weakley — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:00:19 +0000

Merit pay for teacher’s is a way to motivate teachers to unite against the bureaucracy that holds good teachers back. Blaming the students does not work. If you don’t understand this, then Google Jaime Escalante to better understand the problem that we are faced with. This is also the reason for charter schools. To learn how this all got so bad to begin with research the writings of retired teacher John Taylor Gatto.

By: Jarrod

Jarrod — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:36:26 +0000

I echo Johanne’s comment. I have taught some difficult classes where the majority of students are repeating for at least the second time. I’m proud that they would all get through with a tremendous amount of work on their and my part but it would often be by the barest minimum.

Then my senior science class would all be in the 90s as they were self actuated and competing for university entrance.

Should I be penalized for my teaching assignment even though I was very successful?

By: Johanne

Johanne — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:22:33 +0000

I get the concept of “merit pay”. I find it difficult, however, to measure student performance (grades for instance) and say that performance all stems from the teacher.

Some students are just rebellious these days. Are we supposed to penalize teachers for a failing student who has no respect for authority?