OPINION: Merit pay won’t work in education
February 11, 2012 at 1:21 am in The Daily Republic
I am proud to be a high school science teacher in South Dakota, and I am very concerned about the direction our state government is leading us. I feel that Gov. Dennis Daugaard is truly concerned about raising student achievement and cares about children. I do not, however, believe that his proposals will work. Continue Reading
Carrie, good teachers have nothing to worry about. Only the bad. Most of us spent 12 (13 with kindergarden) years in school and I am pretty sure that most of us knew the good teachers from the bad. I know I did. I knew I was happier and more attentive with a good teacher than I was with a bad one. And I learned more too. We need to shake up the education establishment and start rewarding and retaining our superstars. Conversly, we need to adjust the attitudes of bad teachers or fire them if they show no improvement. Tenure needs to based on performance, not simply years of service. And, teachers unions have no place in public education.
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Your philosophy is a myth. I know many teachers, including myself, who would have been unfairly dismissed throughout the years without the protection of “due process”. HB 1234 is a partisan issue. It was creatd behind closed doors with little input from Democrats. When good teachers are dismissed unfairly without due processs, young teachers will shy away from teaching in our state. When medocricy in the classroom prevails because teachers are afraid to take the risks of trying new innovative and controversial methods of instructions, our students will suffer. I cannot believe that some of our legislatures are ignorant enough to support an education bill that is supported by very few teachers or administrators. We will all need to prepare to work hard to clean up the mess that will be made in our schools and state from this injustice.
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You didn’t even reply to my points. Do you disagree with the premise that there are good teachers and bad? Do you disagree with the premise that students know the difference? What makes you think that your job represents a “property right” and, therefore, guarantees you “due process”? How about tenure? How do you think good young teachers feel about bad teachers being awarded tenure while they may be the first to be laid off due to economic conditions How is that fair? What about teachers unions? The point is, education in America is not working. Do you want to continue on a path that is not working? Based on your writings, it sounds like you do.
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I would also like to remind everybody that it is the failure of the adminsitration if a poor performing tenured teacher is not dismissed. We can also blame the poor finanical and staffing resources in many of our schools. Administrators are forced to accept many responsibilities in many of our schools and cannot get into classrooms to sufficiently evalute teachers. In that retrospect, it does not matter what our state goverment mandates a school, administrator, or teacher must do. If the resources in a school are not available, nothing will be accomplished and nothing will change. It is fair to say then that our State resources will be wasted.
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