In a deft move, governor resurrects merit pay framework at 11th hour
The governor successfully and deftly attached a merit pay framework to another bill passed Tuesday by a House Education subcommittee and then the full committee, surprising and disappointing representatives of the state’s two largest teacher organizations, both of whom said they were unaware that the amendment was coming and that teachers will be angered over the political maneuvering. Now, the bill goes to the full House next week for what promises to be a spirited debate.
Representatives of the Georgia Association of Educators and the Professional Association of Georgia Educators expressed dismay that the House Education Committee would act on such a complex topic on the 37th day of the 40-day General Assembly session and without teacher input.
But as House Education vice-chair Fran Millar noted, the state had another deadline that forced the rapid action — Georgia’s reapplication for a federal Race to the Top grant in which performance pay is a key component to land the prize. Georgia came in third in the first round, in which only two states, Delaware and Tennessee, won grants. The state has vowed to come out a winner in round 2.
“This is also about $500 million,” said Millar, in a slight overestimation of how much Georgia could get if it won a Race to the Top grant. “This is one of the criteria to be in the Race to the Top game. So, if we’re going to be in the game, let’s be in the game.”
With that, the committee gave its blessing to the amendment, but not before state Rep. Tommy Benton (R-Jefferson) asked, “Are we trying to do an end run on merit pay here?” (The educators in the hearing room responded “yes.”)
To be clear, the language attached late this afternoon to Senate Bill 521 at the behest of Gov. Sonny Perdue does not mention merit or performance pay or reference the salary schedule. The governor could not get an outright merit pay bill through the Senate this session, but clearly was determined to offer the feds some proof that Georgia is at least laying the groundwork for a system that pays teachers based on how successful they are with their students.
The Perdue amendment takes a more indirect route, requiring statewide uniform teacher evaluations created and enacted by the state Board of Education by July 1, 2011. That single evaluation tool for teachers can take into consideration several factors, including student progress on standardized tests, peer review and parental input.
In a concession, the House Education Committee softened the language sought by the governor’s office, which wanted the bill to mandate that 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation depend on a measure of student progress as reflected in test scores.
Now, the bill says that the statewide evaluation tool to be developed by the state board and used by every school system may consider student progress in deciding how well a teacher performs. However, the change was a hollow victory because the state board of education could easily reinsert the mandate language. The bill gives the governor-appointed school board free hand in developing the evaluation instrument and terms. This clearly paves the way for merit pay, said Herb Garrett of the Georgia School Superintendents Association.
As PAGE member Margaret Ciccarelli explained, the evaluations that teachers receive influences whether they are deemed unsatisfactory for two or more years, which, in turn, can lead to dismissal or a salary freeze. It is not accurate, she said, to contend that the teacher evaluation is not linked in any meaningful to salary.
While PAGE shared the belief that student performance and teacher evaluations should somehow be linked in the future, Ciccarelli told the House committee, “Day 37 is not the time to do it.”
She was followed to the podium by Marcus Downs of GAE. He told the committee that Georgia lost out in the first round of Race to the Top not only because it had no merit pay plan in the works, but because it failed to have all education stakeholders at the table, including teachers. “Our input was not sought. We were again not part of the discussion that was just held,” he said.
Downs was particularly upset that the Senate education committee had only this morning taken up Senate Resolution 1290, which said, in part:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA that there is created the Joint Study Committee on Performance Based Salaries for Teachers to be composed of 12 members as follows: three members of the Senate to be appointed by the Lieutenant Governor, three members of the House of Representatives to be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, three local board of education members to be appointed by the Governor, and three teachers, one each to be appointed by the Governor, the Georgia Association of Educators, and the Professional Association of Georgia Educators.
Committee members expressed concern about whether there was enough time to tackle such a controversial issue, but in the end most voted for it. It passed 12 to 2.
House members did pepper Erin Hames, the governor’s policy director, with questions about how this would impact the investment thus far in Class Keys, an evaluation system now being piloted in 1,200 Georgia schools.
Here are points that Hames mades about Class Keys in response to the committee questions:
- The state has spent $600,000 on Class Keys, all federal dollars. It hopes to build on Class Keys rather than discard it in developing a single uniform way of evaluating teachers. (The state would also develop companion tools to assess principals and assistant principals.)
- The Class Keys evaluation instrument is now in the “validation” phase to see how it is working. One issue is that Class Keys does not now contain a student progress component so that would have to be developed by DOE in rapid fashion to start using it in 2011.
- Only 30 percent of Georgia teachers teach classes where there are standardized tests that could be used in their performance evaluations to assess student progress. That means some other measure of student progress would have to be developed for 70 percent of the state’s teachers. Hames was confident that could be done, and would seek the input of teachers to do so.
In noting the objections of GAE and Page, Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley cited a teachers survey done by the governor’s office in November and December and the response to questions on whether teachers should be evaluated on student performance. The governor’s office maintains that eight out of 10 teachers favor it.
“It seems like PAGE and GAE are out of touch with what teachers actually believe…’Teachers should be evaluated both on classroom observation and the degree to which their students have grown academically” — 81 percent,”’ said Brantley in an e-mail.
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233 comments Add your comment
Just a Thought
April 20th, 2010
7:39 pm
Maureen, since this infamous teacher survey has come up again, do you know where the actual report can be found? I am interested to see what sampling methods were used. I am particularly interested to see if teachers serving in urban and underprivileged areas were sampled.
I agree that we need drastic changes in education. As I have stated before, I am all for merit pay if I will receive the tools and support necessary to validate having 50% of my pay based on student performance. It is not likely to happen. I can move mountains with the right resources and support. But you can’t move mountains if you are digging with spoons.
Maureen Downey
April 20th, 2010
7:43 pm
Just a thought: Go to
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2010/01/25/here-is-the-governors-teacher-survey-results-per-your-requests/
Happy Teacher
April 20th, 2010
7:43 pm
I think the headline for this posting is somewhat misleading. I hope everyone clams down and reads the entire posting before chiming in with outlandish claims about imminent slashed pay and pay beig tied to one test. These emotional reactions are not going to help anything. As a profession, we would be much wiser to use our effort to get as many seats at the table as possible as this gets hammered out.
Nikole Allen
April 20th, 2010
7:48 pm
I wonder if you could get the state to publish the survey. I remember taking it and I do not think the question was as clear in the intent to make a teacher’s base pay based on a standardized test. I would have agreed with some type of bonus for teachers that accelerate learning, but nothing like the plan (or lack of plan) the state has introduced.
Maureen Downey
April 20th, 2010
7:52 pm
Happy Teacher, I do think it is important to note that the amendment today does not speak directly to salaries and student performance, only to evaluations. However, it is also fair to say that the ultimate goal – and no one is pretending otherwise – is a way to pay teachers in part based on how well their students perform. The state would like 50 percent of a teacher evaluation to be based on measurable results, such as test scores, including standardized, benchmark and formative, according to Erin Hames.
The problem remains what to do about that 70 percent of teachers in classrooms without any standardized tests. And can we develop a fair system to evaluate their effectiveness.
Erin mentioned today that 99 percent of the nation’s teachers are receiving satisfactory evaluations, yet those evaluations don’t consider whether the teacher is effective in producing student progress. Is there a fair way to measure teacher effectiveness that takes into account all the pluses and minuses that students bring to the equation?
That is the question that I think we have yet to answer.
Maureen
Just a Thought
April 20th, 2010
7:53 pm
Thanks Maureen.
Didn’t get past the second page before I saw the first red flag, “Teacher respondents (as part of the Educator Survey) cover over 13% of the overall teacher population in Georgia”
The fact that they stated it was “just” over 13% (approximately 15,000 teachers) should raise serous concerns about the validity of this survey. Eighty-one percent of “over 13%” is not very convincing at all. I mean why not say over 40% or even over 25%? This is the evidence of teacher buy-in being used to support merit pay?
Teacher Too
April 20th, 2010
7:53 pm
“The vast majority of teachers will experience a huge pay CUT on this plan” Really? Why… because their classrooms are structured like prison outreach programs? Because their ability to use an overhead projector counts as “technology”… because they consider the use of facebook/social networking sites “play time”?
If Doctors had adapted the same mentality of some teachers… we’d still be using leeches to treat illness.
The only teachers that would have their pay CUT from a merit system, would be the teachers that need to improve.
Educator2
April 20th, 2010
7:54 pm
@Parent, I see your point regarding the correspondence issue but most parents would provide negative input because a teacher is “too hard” on their child (Ex. The teacher with high expectations with no excuses for late work or applying the rules to EVERYONE including their child).In addition, many parents would likely give negative input because they did not like their child’s grade regardless, if it a true reflection of the student academically.
Teacher Too
April 20th, 2010
7:56 pm
To add to your comment Ms. Downey… recent studies have shown that when interviewed, over 70% of teachers commented that at least 20% of their peers were not “good teachers”, yet the same studies show less than .01% are on any type of professional development plan to HELP them become better teachers.
Those afraid of merit pay are those who don’t believe in their abilities.
Teacher Too
April 20th, 2010
7:58 pm
Educator 2, It’s the 21st century. The 18th century model of education you adhere to is long gone.
Happy Teacher
April 20th, 2010
7:59 pm
15% of a population responding to a survey is a very healthy sample size for a legitimate survey. Ask any statistician…
I hear ya’ Maureen, I just feel like when the term “merit pay” is used on this blog, it elicits a reaction that blocks out rational, productive discussion.
This is a step towards “m..p”, no doubt, but it seems to be more cautious than the previous leap. I hope we embrace this “progress” instead of some of the vitriol that is already flying.
over it
April 20th, 2010
8:02 pm
Oh, Fran Millar – since your children were able to take advantage of the DeKalb County System when it was in its prime, now it’s time to just ruin it for everyone, isn’t it? You can’t be just that out of touch, can you? I’d be willing to bet that if this guy had his daughter in school today, there’d be more sympathy. But, nooooo . . . .
Don’t worry, Ga Legislature and Sonny Perdue . . . you’re just giving the good teachers more reason to leave the state. Keep trying this crap . . . businesses that you are trying to attract will be paying attention. Even the voters in New Jersey voted for tax increases instead of disrespecting their teachers today. Who will want to move to GA once they realize the way their government treats their schools? I’m not a fan of Charlie Crist, but God Bless him, he had his mind in the right place.
it's time
April 20th, 2010
8:03 pm
I think a chalkboard flu would send a brilliant message.
Science Teacher
April 20th, 2010
8:04 pm
I have no problem at all with accountability, but here’s the problem I have with merit pay. How can I be judged based student performance on the 8th grade science CRCT if they compare my students’ current year scores to their 7th grade scores? They took life science in 7th grade and physical science in 8th grade–apples and oranges, folks. Statewide averages drop considerably from 7th to 8th grades. How can I show improvement when there is nothing comparable with which to evaluate my students’ progress?
Educator2
April 20th, 2010
8:05 pm
@Teacher Too, You do not know my educational model preference. I suggest you speak for yourself.
Maureen Downey
April 20th, 2010
8:05 pm
Happy Teacher, I understand the visceral reaction to “merit pay,” but I think we have to be honest in this discussion about what is going on. I do agree with a poster below – merit pay is coming and teachers ought to be involved. However, the GAE rep was bummed today because his group has been working with legislative leaders – at least that is what he thought — and yet this was sprung on them today without any warning. So, while the state says it wants teachers involved – Kathy Cox told me she may take a teacher to DC to make the next Race to the Top presentation – I am not sure teachers believe a sincere effort to involve them has been made.
And that is what I would work on if I were in state government.
Maureen
Happy Teacher
April 20th, 2010
8:07 pm
ST – You would actually be judged based on the improvement during the year, from a pre- test to a post-test, both covering physical science. It’s one of the (very) common misconceptions about merit pay.
Sonny is a snake!
April 20th, 2010
8:08 pm
You will NEVER convince me that 8 out of 10 teachers want pay based on student performance… TOO many factors out of our control. Who did they interview? Teacher who want a GA DOE job? You want to increase student performance? Make students and parents accountable!!! As a whole, most teachers I know care more than the students. Maybe if our society valued education like parents in China/Japan, etc… things would be different (we would also need lawmakers that have a clue!).
Will the pushers answer?
April 20th, 2010
8:08 pm
One true way to expose the integrity of those who are pushing this.
Will merit pay IMPROVE, on average, the overall quality of teaching in Georgia, yes or no?
If yes, like the merit pay crowd insist, will the Legislature guarantee that on average the pay for teachers in Georgia will NOT go down?
If they can’t guarantee that, then they need to admit this is a VERY disingenuous way of slashing teacher salaries.
Happy Teacher
April 20th, 2010
8:11 pm
Thank you for the insight Maureen.
I especially agree with your last statement about what the state needs to improve on. I just worry that there is little willingness to even listen on the part of teachers regarding this topic.
Educator2
April 20th, 2010
8:24 pm
@Will the pushers answer, I agree this is all about reducing teacher salaries. They have no vested interest in anything else.
Dekalbite
April 20th, 2010
8:26 pm
Since over half of all teachers are in positions that don’t have standardized testing, it really doesn’t seem fair to put the burden on the other half. I honestly don’t think the people who are passing this bill realize that fully half of the teachers have no responsibility for standardized testing.
Dekalbite
April 20th, 2010
8:27 pm
Teachers and their families did in Barnes. Hopefully, they will do in Perdue.
bootney farnsworth
April 20th, 2010
8:29 pm
said it before, saying it again.
I’m not necessarily opposed to merit pay in theory, but have
several concerns about the reality.
I’m willing to talk about it, but Sonny has to engage in an
honest discussion. at this point I’d not believe him if Sonny
said water was wet
bootney farnsworth
April 20th, 2010
8:31 pm
I agree with Maureen on one thing. it IS coming.
better we are part of the discussion than being shut out of it.
but I STILL don’t trust Sonny anymore
Just a Thought
April 20th, 2010
8:32 pm
@Happy Teacher, thank you for the insight. I am not a statistician so I was looking at this from a lay person’s point of view. If over 13% is considered statistically sound then I can’t argue with that.
I see your point about emotionalism but you are talking about changing how people are paid and affecting their very livelihood. I think emotional reactions to such a move are not unwarranted. Very little information has come from the state regarding merit pay and indeed the ambiguity, lack of information, and lack of openness is adding fuel to the fire. If the process were being handled differently I think reactions would be different as well.
Just as you counsel to be level headed and to have productive discussion I think we all expect the same from our legislative leaders who make these decisions. Right now it seems as if their decisions are also reactionary (RTTT) and they are definitely not encouraging productive (read candid) discussions.
Ellie
April 20th, 2010
8:34 pm
I totally agree with Maureen that merit pay is coming and we need to work with it so it doesn’t completely destroy teaching. But this….this is the sneakiest underhanded piece of trash maneuvering I’ve seen in a long time. This isn’t about merit pay …this is ram it down no matter what it take to get RTT…and make sure it’s so fast and sneaky no one can react. Pure slim in action. All my reps will hear from me tomorrow…and they make one move to support this garbage and will never see a vote from me again in this lifetime.
Metro Coach
April 20th, 2010
8:36 pm
What the person who e-mailed you neglected to mention was that in the survey that where “81%” agreed about merit pay, they only surveyed 20k teachers. I spoke to a teacher who received the survey and she said that the questions were worded very suggestively, and that if you weren’t paying very close attention you could easily answer yes to something you did not agree with. The survey is a ploy to try and turn attention away from just how terrible this idea is. Sad that the governor had to resort to liberal progressive tactics to get this amendment passed. The last thing we need is more federal interference in eduation.
Time for a change
April 20th, 2010
8:36 pm
They ( repubs) have just placed a Democrat in the Governor’s office. Thank God !
bootney farnsworth
April 20th, 2010
8:37 pm
@ happy
I’m more than willing to talk, I just don’t trust Sonny
or anyone close to him.
I’d be willing to listen to Roy. I dislike his postions,
but at least he’s up front about them.
Teacher
April 20th, 2010
8:38 pm
Hello Guys,
I’m going on ten years here, still considered a baby in some parts and I’m completely BURNED OUT with all this mess! I’m really considering a career change. I agree that I should as others on any other job be held accountable to some type of evaluation HOWEVER I have no control over certain things — for example:
Parents not showing up for conferences to discuss lack of satisfactory improvement.
Students coming in not being prepared – giving excuses such as “I had a baseball game”
Students and parents not seeing education as a VALUE.
Students not being properly identified for special services that they need.
Parents moving their students mid year when the going gets tough. (example: I had THREE students start the day BEFORE the GA Writing Test and guess whose scores they will be counted with, ME)
and so on….
I don’t mind being held accountable, but we need to look at all the factors including PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT and the history thereof.
Right now…. I’m thinking I should have become a nurse…
bootney farnsworth
April 20th, 2010
8:39 pm
I really feel sorry for anyone running on the republican
ticket for governor. Sonny has posioned the waters for
years to come.
Mid-South Philosopher
April 20th, 2010
8:39 pm
I will campaign with my money, my time, my influence, and my vote any of my representatives who support this “dastardly” act orchestrated by an inept and inconsequential man of “big gut” and “little intellect.”
SpEd Teacher
April 20th, 2010
8:39 pm
I teach children with emotional disabilities, most of whom have been badly abused, molested, neglected, or mistreated. These children have hallucinations, explosions, meltdowns on a regular basis because of what they have experienced outside of school. On a good day, they stay calm and feel safe and loved. On a great day, they learn, but not every day is a great day. Academic performance for them is contingent upon so many factors far beyond our control within the school and in the current budget crunch, DFACS fails to protect them. They need not only a teacher, but an advocate. Once this measure passes those people who work to rebuild these children will be gone, not because they want to leave, but because their performance is measured on the scores the children produce rather than the healing they experience. Thank you Gov. Perdue for failing these children who need an advocate most.
Mid-South Philosopher
April 20th, 2010
8:40 pm
That should have been “campaign against”. That fat fool has me seeing red!
bixster xavia
April 20th, 2010
8:40 pm
Moore: Merit pay for parents
Author: MICHAEL MOORE
Professor of Literacy Education at Georgia Southern University
If your child needs glasses and you provide them; if your child’s weight falls within normal levels; if your child averages less then two hours of television and or video game playing daily, then you as a parent might be eligible for merit pay.
Merit pay is pay for performance. Since many educational problems are social problems that exist outside the domain of schools, I am proposing a plan that pays parents for outstanding performance.
If you read to your preschooler, keep books around the house and model positive print experiences, then there should be a place for you at the “top.”
If you insist that your elementary school-aged child do homework and not do it for him or her; if you insist on explicit talk at home, if you don’t tolerate poor speaking habits and especially if you don’t tolerate sloppy thinking, then Arne Duncan should share the wealth with you and the top teachers.
If you come to open house, make all your parent teacher conferences, actually volunteer at the school, read the notes and messages sent home and insist these be delivered right away, realize that with any teacher/student conflict that you are only getting one slanted view from your child and insist on hearing both sides, if there are real consequences for bad behavior, and you realize that the school and home is a partnership and not opposing forces, then you deserve a break from uniform fees, equipment expenses, camps and extra-curricular add-ons.
If you insist on knowing who your middle school child’s teachers are, who his or her friends are, if you monitor their out of school behavior, if you insist your child not be bullied or be a bully, if you let your school know how moronic high stakes testing actually is and how much time is taken from real instruction with weeks of testing or test preparation, if you insist that the arts are equally important subjects and that physical activity goes hand in hand with mental activity, if you encourage school-sponsored out-of-school activities and thank the teachers who do this extra work for little or no money, then the next SB 386 that comes along advocating pay for performance should include you, the parent.
If you monitor your student’s computer use, tell them Facebook will be a great way for us to keep in touch when you are in college, let them know that MySpace is passe’ (and tell them what that means), see a doctor when they get sick and not after they’ve been sick for two weeks, encourage clubs, share books and journals, insist on regular family-style meals where everyone is allowed to talk (and this doesn’t matter if you are a single parent), emphasize the importance of family, refuse to tolerate ethnocentric thinking, ban stereotyping, smile indulgently at generalizations and then demand evidence, promote the spiritual side of human development, show them that volunteerism is everyone’s job, and that in a democracy we get a chance to vote for what we want, then the superintendent should have a check with your name on it.
If you attend your student’s performances and games, insist that school comes before athletics, attend school board meetings especially when your board has misguided notions that might adversely affect your child or privilege and not everyone, if you always remember that just because you went to school it doesn’t make you an expert on teaching, and insist that school officials keep everything – especially the budget – transparent and online, then you’ve made your case for merit pay.
All that’s left to get you your money is to establish a set of standards that isolate and identify each individual parent behavior that we want to promote. Then list them out, make sure they are prominently posted in the home, and then develop an assessment instrument to make sure that we account for your behavior and have some way to compare you with other parents.
If you fall under a certain score, then we will provide summer workshops for you with materials developed by the testing company and hopefully we will remediate those bad behaviors.
If you continue to need improvement, I’m sorry. We will have to ask you to move to another district.
Michael Moore is a Professor of Literacy Education at Georgia Southern University and can be reached at mmoore@georgia southern.edu.
Will the pushers answer?
April 20th, 2010
8:42 pm
Where are the pushers?
Yes or no; will merit pay improve teaching overall in Georgia?
If yes, then why not guarantee teacher PAY will improve with improved TEACHING?
If you can’t guarantee it, then admit that either it won’t improve teaching, or you are looking for an easy way out to slash teacher pay.
TeacherTeacher
April 20th, 2010
8:42 pm
I have never posted here before, but felt compelled to today after reading the blog for months. This will eventually drive me out of the field of teaching. Nothing is worth this kind of stress. Slapping ammendments on at the last minute to ram things through is unconscionable. We may be racing, yes…but it is NOT to the top.
Happy Teacher
April 20th, 2010
8:43 pm
I hear you bf..it’s going to be very interesting to see how this all shakes out in an election year. I am very optimistic that this will get teachers off the sidelines and involved in the process. If we have more teachers getting involved in the process, that could be an amazing positive.
I imagine a bunch of candidates let out a collective “oh %#!&” today when this gem was dropped…
Fericita
April 20th, 2010
8:44 pm
Teacher Too – I think the concern about a pay cut is that the base salary would be low, and then you would be eligible for an increase in pay based on how your students do. There just isn’t enough information about it to know if all teachers would have their pay cut at the beginning of this plan, and then increased if they do contribute to student learning. I imagine teachers already working would be grandfathered in, but again, there is just not enough information. It’s making people nervous!
Happy Teacher – I hope there will be a rational, productive discussion on merit pay. However, I already see a lot of irrational educational policies that have no basis in research or the students’ best interests. For example, students who arrive in the U.S. between March 3 and the CRCT have to take all sections of the CRCT. Does that make sense? And, should I trust the same people who came up with that rule to make merit pay rules?
Will the pushers answer?
April 20th, 2010
8:45 pm
Happy Teacher you’ve been pushing this.
Will it or will it NOT improve teaching in Georgia?
If we are THAT sure it will improve the overall quality of teaching, why can’t we be THAT committed to increasing the overall pay of Georgia teachers?
Are we saying that Georgia’s teachers should get LESS pay for IMPROVED teaching?
Georgia Teacher
April 20th, 2010
8:46 pm
Really? Seriously. Wow!
What an asinine move.
Happy Teacher
April 20th, 2010
8:47 pm
Ferecita – they have to take it, but it doesn’t count towards AYP or anything else…
bootney farnsworth
April 20th, 2010
8:47 pm
“Does that make sense? And, should I trust the same people who came up with that rule to make merit pay rules?”
sums it up nicely.
H.S. Coach
April 20th, 2010
8:48 pm
Dear Sonny,
(In noting the objections of GAE and Page, Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley cited a teachers survey done by the governor’s office in November and December and the response to questions on whether teachers should be evaluated on student performance. The governor’s office maintains that eight out of 10 teachers favor it.)
Please tell me what survey you guys keep using. I’ve talked to dozens of teachers and no one in several metro counties has any idea what you guys are talking about.
bootney farnsworth
April 20th, 2010
8:50 pm
@will,
you’re looking for guarentees which can’t exist.
until tried, no one knows for sure.
I’m not willing to go thumbs up/down until we get invited
to the table – but I don’t trust anyone in the current admin
to be a honest broker.
merit pay or not, the problems in education in Ga run very
deep. its a single step, not an overall solution.
FedUp
April 20th, 2010
8:52 pm
2012 won’t come soon enough for me. It’s not worth the stress. I’m out!!!
Happy Teacher
April 20th, 2010
8:52 pm
Yes, I believe it will definitely improve the quality of teaching in Georgia. Especially because I believe it will weed out a lot of bad teachers who have become very comfortable in their jobs. I also believe it will it will keep younger teachers in the profession longer, instead of them seeking to move “up” to a higher salary in administration, or another field.
Increasing overall pay would be wonderful too, but we have to sort through this economic crisis first. I think the public is largely dissatisfied with education, rightly or wrongly, and teachers will find more public favor for raising pay if the public feels we are more accountable than we currently are.
(BTW – I think most teachers do a good to great job, but perception is reality in politics, and we have to work with that in mind)
Hmmmm....
April 20th, 2010
8:53 pm
This will never work once the kids and their lunatic parents find out that our salaries are based on their performance. Parents already think we are their employees, and this will just make it that much worse.
Will the pushers answer?
April 20th, 2010
8:54 pm
Happy Teacher, you’ve admitted no one knows the SPECIFICS of how teachers would be paid, but have indicated teachers should have faith that it will be fair and equitable.
Based on the tactics we’ve seen today, what can you say to Georgia teachers to give them ANY assurance the Legislature will indeed operate in good faith toward them?