Merit pay law raises questions for Florida's specialty teachers

[proud2BlibKansan]

The state's new teacher merit pay law kicks in this school year and the idea behind it sounds simple: the better students perform, the more teachers can earn.

But in areas such as art, music and physical education, it's raising more questions than answers. The law mandates up to half of a teacher's raise be based on how well students do on standardized tests, but there is no state criteria to evaluate specialty teachers. Districts will have to come up with that this year.

Another complicating factor, says Boynton Beach High School Principal Karen Whetsell, is that a student's FCAT success can't be attributed to just one teacher. "The art teacher, the drama teacher, the music teacher give kids some purpose to come to school…We all work together. How do you evaluate one over the other?"

Teachers hired after July 1 will fall under the merit pay rules; others can opt in or continue being paid based on tenure. Yet even those honored for excellence in their specialties are mixed in their opinions about how fair the new system can be to those following in their footsteps.

more . . . http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/highered/fl-electives-fcat-accountability-20110820,0,5679631.story

Been saying for years that this is the problem with merit pay. How is a Debate teacher rewarded? Or a Band teacher?

[greymattermom]

1. by a panel of judges

who judge the debates and band performance at the beginning and end of the school year. who check on attendance of debaters and musicians at events outside school hours. it could be done. the meaningful measure is improvement, not an absolute goal.

[Davis_X_Machina]

3. You mean...

....'check which debaters and musicians have transportation, and/or parent(s) who work normal hours, and don't babysit, or work in a family business'.

I've done debate for decades -- it skews prosperous, because someone needs to get the kid(s) to school every Saturday during the season, sometimes at 5:30 AM. And retrieve them when the van gets back, sometimes at 9:30 PM. And since the activity buses cover 1/3 the routes of the usual buses, don't run on Mondays or Fridays, and are always the first things cut, retrieve the kids from practice.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. No worries, the intent of the merit pay crowd is to

do away with all those subjects. Who needs art, music, debate, etc.???? Why should the taxpayers do anything more than teach the kids reading, riting, and rithmetic? If there is no standardized test, isn't it apparent that this is not an important subject?

:sarcasm:

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. I'm reminded of that scene from The Wire

It's a faculty meeting and the teachers are told they are all now Reading teachers. Doesn't matter what subjects they are certified in or what they were hired to teach - they are now all to teach only Reading.

[Curmudgeoness]

10. That is not as funny as it sounds. Ridiculous, yes.

Funny, not so much. I was trained as a biology teacher, but I was also trained that one of the most important things for me to integrate into the lessons is writing. I really do understand how one skill translates into other subjects, but to tell me that I should focus on writing means that I am to focus less on biology. So....if the students have a writing assignment, should I be so critical of the writing that the student only worries about how it is written and not about the content and research??? I don't know.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. I'm sure you incorporate writing into your lessons

That's different from not teaching Biology and only teaching writing.

I think I'd focus on the content of their writing. But I teach special ed so that's an easy answer for me. :)

[surrealAmerican]

7. Sadly, you're probably right.

The arts are always the first programs that get cut. Even if it were all about test scores, that's counter-productive. There are studies that show a clear link between music classes and math scores, and others that indicate that drama instruction improves reading comprehension.

[lindysalsagal]

4. Just one more case of "I know how to run a school because I attended one."

If it's all the same to everyone, I'll (veteran public school music teacher)let the dentist drill my teeth, rather than the rest of you who have been to the dentist every year. Same goes for the surgeon or even the butcher or mechanic. I've been driving for 35 years but I don't know how to design or make a road, or a car....

These things come and go. As teachers, we've gotten used to it. Everyone but a teacher knows how to teach.

Well, be my guest! Go get your 6 years of college, pass unbelievable tests, including video recording, get your certification, and then try to get an interview. After you get the job, be prepared to get up at 5:30 am 181 days a year for 35 years, and take shit from kids and parents and moron administrators.

And then we'll talk.

You first.

[alp227]

5. REPEAL NCLB! n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

8. Imagine judging Picasso's or Pollack's ability...

by comparing it to a standardized test.

[awoke_in_2003]

9. "give kids some purpose to come to school"...

and another thing- they don't want kids to have a purpose. They don't want them to be creative, curious, or intelligent. They want little worker bees. K&R, by the way