Anything other reasoning proposed in the media is just lipstick on a pig.

The other point often raised about merit pay is it is macro- rather than micro-. That is, economic incentive doesn’t necessarily affect those already in a job, but can attract new people who wouldn’t otherwise be swayed. The only way to find out if this is true in education, I fear, is to watch if the Rhee plan crashes and burns.

Could you give some links? (I wrote about a study here and here where merit pay seemed to have an impact when done as a scientific study with a control group and so forth.) I don’t necessarily support merit pay I do not know of any studies that definitely demonstrate (without being too entangled with other factors) their lacking status.

When a new teacher fails, the mentor should take some of the blame if proper documentation does not exist. I have known teachers who served in the role of mentor… in title only. They were too wrapped up in their own jobs to extend their expertise with their mentee.

Merit pay will not work to create effective teachers. All too often, criteria for merit pay is overwhelmingly subjective. The “plan” does what it is intended to do. Keep a consistent rollover of teachers to reduce the cost to districts. I know it’s a union line. I wish the bureaucrats would turn that critical eye toward themselves and see that they are a large part of the problem. (sorry for my digression)

Becoming an effective teacher takes time. People need time to grow into the profession and like students, they need the proper environment in which to grow.

I would think that all teachers would agree that creating learner-centred environments, engaging learners, following the lesson plan and so on are valid, useful criteria for judging the quality of a teacher’s work. But if the judgements are made after a single observation by one person, the system has holes you could drive a truck through.

Isn’t there a way to include multiple sources of data, including samples of students’ actual bookwork, externally administered surveys of parents, interviews with students, and so on, to gather a picture of the “whole teacher”? There are critical and significant markers for judging teacher performance, but these judgements should not be made quickly with limited data.

Rhee’s plan is fairly detailed, concrete, and based on educational best practices. However, it has teachers up for dismissal after only one year of poor scores and five observations, only two of which are from a master teacher.

I think that instead of having teachers “moved out,” The evaluation system should take more years and have many more observations, combined with modeling from a master teacher as needed. It would also be nice to incorporate peer observations somehow, to better foster a collaborative professional community.