Doug Mann wrote: > The district is moving toward a merit pay system (pay for > performance) which I believe will produce the kind of abuses > which inspired teachers to organize and fight for alternatives > to merit pay, such as pay differentials based on length of service > and educational attainment, i.e., steps and ladders.
Although merit pay is part of Bush's No Child Left Behind program it is a serious mistake if merit is determined by peer ratings (which will only reinforce the status quo) and not based on student achievement. However, one alternative is to base merit pay on subject expertise, which has been shown to be highly correlated with teacher performance. Although not sufficient, it is often a necessary requirement: you can't teach what you don't know well. > Tenured teachers may be and sometimes are fired for evidence > of poor job performance and misconduct. The problem is that the > administration doesn't go to the trouble of taking corrective and > disciplinary actions in many cases because they have other fish to fry. Any industry that does not have a system to separate good workers from bad is destined to become inefficient and ineffective. Any MPS administrator who doesn't take the time to remove bad teachers is compounding the problem and they themselves should be removed. Note that the responsibility for this has a bubble effect: it goes all the way to the top. Jim Graham wrote: I am not a fan of Minneapolis Public School as a whole . Too bad it is the only option for many poor people in Minneapolis. Although there are not many poor people who read the List, you might want to make those you know aware of the fact that they are not stuck with the MPS. Poor parents can enroll they're children in any public or charter school in the state and in many cases the state will pick up the tab for transportation (if the funding wasn't cut last year). The problem is that many parents will not be motivated to provide the best education possible for their children, so the responsibility falls back on the school system and the public. Michael Atherton Prospect Park TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
