Nov 30 2012: At first glance merit pay for teachers sounds good. Effective teachers can generate higher base pay as an incentive to remain in education and improve student performance. How do we determine merit? Student grades, student test scores, principal evaluations, student evaluations, parent evaluations, or peer evaluations are all factors to consider. How do we determine the correct balance of these factors? Other things to consider like what test do we use cognitive abilities test, IQ test, basic skills test, wrote memorization test which best measure student achievement? Additional questions like is effectiveness tied to growth and development. For instance one teachers class is full of high performing students who have been well taught by previous teachers and test scores improve .25%, however another teacher classroom is full of under preforming students who have been poorly taught and test scores go up 3% how do you determine which teacher is the more effective educator? You have a good question that politicians can't or unlikely to solve.
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