Mme, it would be senseless to give merit pay based simply on overall class performance. The standardized tests can, however, be mined for effective metrics upon which teacher performance pay could be based.
If you ignore the test scores, or weight them as only one part of the metric, and look instead at the change in test scores over some period of time, then you'll discover which students are under performing or over performing in that teacher's classroom.
For example, suppose that you teach math and you have a class of 30 students whose composite standardized test scores over the last three years are in the 40th percentile. If your class composite test score moves into the 55th percentile then you've done a fantastic job.
If, on the other hand, the composite scores of that class are in the 70th percentile and they move to the 55th percentile then you've done a poor job.
The tests can be mined even further for those in earlier grades. You should be able to examine where each individual class under or over performed the national average with respect to subcategories of instruction. You could pair up teachers whose classes over performed in those areas with teachers whose classes had under performed so that they could share successful teaching techniques.
Unfortunately, the tests are not mined for this information. The reason for that is, I think, twofold. First, the teacher's unions are reluctant to see any objective teacher performance metrics adopted. They'd rather circle the wagons and keep the good ole boys network in place.
Secondly, and just as disturbing, I suspect that the public education system may be too dumb to think its way through real reform. It requires active, innovative thinking to find effective solutions to bureaucratic thickets and the public educational system may lack the will and the talent to find the right paths. Ed
PS, regarding the class that acted up; the strays are often more intelligent than the main flock. That's not to say they don't wander off and get eaten by predators more frequently. |
