I agree with #4 and 5, but #1-3 is where I believe they focus too much on economic ideas and not on understanding what goes on in the classroom.
For example:
#1: Avoid across the board pay increases
"total compensation for the average public school teacher is considerably higher than what his or her skills would merit in the private sector."
True, public school teachers are paid more than private schools, but there's no set curriculum in private school as mandated by the state (or in charter schools for that matter), nor do you have to be certified to teach. True, they want to have certified teachers, but there's no law stating you must be, therefore there are some private school teachers who are not certified to teach their content. (I know there are bad/struggling teachers everywhere, that a whole 'nother discussion.) Also, to my knoweldge, private schools have the benefit of selective admissions over public schools, and they don't have to take or report scores on state standardized tests (if they take them). How many public schools turn away special education students?
"School districts generally have more than enough money to pay teachers adequately, making across-the-board pay increases unnecessary and a waste of scarce resources. Such increases are also inherently blunt instruments—the least effective teachers would be rewarded as much as the most effective ones."
But what about the step increases that we haven't seen, which could be seen as the yearly bonuses that some private companies give out, or rewards for staying on the job and gaining more experience, which is said to improve the quality of teaching? What about inflation adjustments that we haven't been getting, so our take home is decreasing while prices are increasing?
Secondly, while it looks like teachers make more than the private sector, and they do, the private sector outpaces our salaries so much faster.
#2: Performance based payment
My problem with this is not based on the idea that you should pay people even if they do a crappy job, no, I believe that people should get paid more for excellent performance, which in a teacher's world means how much students learn. What I have a problem with is that too often test scores and principal based evaluations are used as the basis for payment. Test scores have too many variables attached, including how well off the student's family is (more affluent has been shown to increase test scores, which I have no control over), how motivated the student is (which I can have some control over, in some situations), to how much sleep the student got the night before (which I have no control over, I'm not visiting all 155 of my students every night at home to make sure they get to bed on time, that's ridiculous and what parents are for.) So if I teach in a less-affluent area where my students have not had lots of opportunities to learn, are not focused on succeeding in school, and didn't sleep the night before, I won't be getting a bonus or high pay all because of things that I have no to very little control over. That is what is not fair. Until poverty, homelessness, and mental issues are address better (or even mentioned at all) in this country, merit or performance pay in education is not realistic.
"A proper VAM uses both pre-tests and post-tests to track student progress with each teacher, attempting to measure not a student’s total achievement, but what an individual teacher added to it."
This is a great idea, and would help make performance pay more realistic, but students are already over tested and the curriculum has so much material in it (at least in VA History) that we don't have time in the school year to cover all of the material and take end of unit tests, much less take time for diagnostic tests as well. Even a 10 question diagnostic test can take 20 minutes in class to administer, which takes 20 minutes out of the time for content.
"VAMs add important information about teacher quality, but they should always be used in conjunction with administrator evaluations and other performance-based measures."
I haven't heard of many schools using VAMs in conjunction with many other things due to time, price, etc. plus with a reliability of 0.47 (Totally could be wrong about that.)
#3: screen after hiring
I do agree with the idea to screen after hiring because maybe a person thought they would be a good teacher but it's taking a couple years to catch on, which is where mentors and professional development (not pointless meetings, but time to sit down and develop ideas) are so important, and there are others who just never get it and should go find somewhere that a) makes them happy and b) they're successful at. Sometimes people just don't know what successful teaching looks like, or they have to spend their entire life recreating the wheel in their first year and burn out. More opportunities for student teaching is so important so that you can work on those skills and figure things out.
"Staiger and Rockoff argue that schools should significantly relax entry requirements, but then reserve permanent positions for only the top 20 percent or so who perform best during their tryout period, which could be as short as one year"
The problem with really relaxing entry requirements is that while it's a good idea, that's one year that affects one entire group of kids. Having that entry year be as a student teacher would be a much better idea because if they're really failing to teach and get through to kids or manage a classroom, the experienced teacher is there to step in and offer advice and support. I truly think that a full year of student teaching should be nationally required to become a teacher, rather than the 6 weeks to 6 mo that some candidates get.
#4: 401K plans
Completely agree... see Detroit.
#5: No magic bullets in education policy
Education policy is so wrapped in social welfare policy, healthcare policy, economic policy, and so many other things that so much would have to change all together to affect education results.
(These are my personal thoughts and not reflective of anyone else or any business or employer.)
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