Let's suppose merit pay somehow passes but only the teachers with the top scoring students will get the extra money. Let's suppose that not only will there not be merit pay, there won't even be jobs for the teachers with the lowest scoring students.
Let's suppose I am teaching one of these regents classes. I spend hours tutoring my students because I need the money and want to keep my job. Mr. T is not interested in the extra money and doesn't even care about keeping his job because he is moving out of state at the end of the term. Mr. T's students come to me and ask me for help. Do I
1. Help them and risk his class getting better scores than my class? (my job and my career are at stake.) or
2. Ignore them and leave them to their own devices. Their failure is not my problem but their success could cause me major problems.
Does merit pay and pay for good grades sound so great right now?
1 comment:
But it sounds so good on paper.
I have Big Guy who comes to my class every 10th day. He could be an A student but thinks coming to high school is beneath him. He will not graduate this year (because his English teacher will not pass him and he will have to retake 12th grade English). He will not get an A for me because there is enough daily work that he will miss by not being here. If we had a regents, he would pass well.
I have Julio who comes every day. HE DOES NOTHING. He won't even put his name on a paper and turn it in. The other kids cannot get him to do anything. I have him for 2 different classes. I told him yesterday that I will try to find ways for him to pass (and graduate and move on) but he has to DO something.
Trust me, I don't want merit pay because I know I will be assigned the same classes next year.
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