Sunday, June 07, 2009

Merit Pay, Teacher Pay, and Value Added Measures

Merit pay won't work. I hope Curmudgeon (http://mathcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/ ) doesn't mind that I am posting it here. It is too good not to share with everyone.

4 comments:

appple said...

great find. thanks to you and curmudgeon for sharing.

ChiTown Girl said...

That was fantastic! Thanks for sharing!

Curmudgeon said...

Me, too!

sandi said...

I am reposting this!

We have Value-added in my state (TN). It is based on our state mandated test given around April every year (not a fall to spring test). I keep all of my Value-added scores and they show a three year span. It's funny to me that with Group X that I had in 2004, my VA score was, say, 73 (bc these numbers make little sense anyway). Then when I look at my 2005 VA score the next year, Group X's score from 2004 went DOWN. How'd this happen since I didn't have them?
Oh, it's because they take into account that things could have changed. It might have been a fluke that their scores were really good so when they didn't do as well the next year, their score was adjusted...... at least that's the reply I got when I questioned it. Makes a lot of sense, right? Not to me, either.

As of right now we don't have merit pay, thank goodness. I don't want my pay based on a test that is given once a year to children who can (and sometimes do) refuse to try simply bc they are pissed at someone that day. And my Value-Added scores are usually pretty good.