A recent story at huffingtonpost.com, talks of the new merit pay program that the Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel is enforcing for the upcoming school year. This is something I know Iowa administrators feel is coming to Iowa sooner, rather than later. I feel like merit pay is something to look at, but according to a study cited in the article, has yet to prove it directly impacts student achievement. If merit pay is going to be enforced for the administrators of CPS shouldn't teachers get this as well? Afterall, it is a collaborative effort. How do you monitor this? I feel that this would encourage administrators, feeling the pressure, to skew results. I will be very interested to see if this works for CPS, as this will be watched closely by other urban districts.
Everytime I read a story on changing education I am greatful that I received my education in Iowa. Although our system is not perfect, I would say, it's better than most. We are slowly changing the way we think about instruction, and the continous need to improve. Is merit pay the answer to student achievement? Is it also a way to "weed out" weak links? I would also like to look at the study done by the Rand Corporation on merit pay results in New York. I am also interested to see if any studies will be coming out or have already, on the former district in Colorado that Jason Glass came from. Is their merit pay program working?
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your blog about merit pay. Every time I think about merit pay, I think of the Daniel Pink Drive video we watched in the Systems Thinking class. There is a lot of research that does not support it and it would be a challenge to implement. I keep thinking about the first time Jason Glass spoke to our cohort and that he implemented many different aspects into his district in Colorado and merit may or may not have had any affect on the outcomes. I have many concerns about merit pay but also think that it may be coming.
There will always be questions that we ask about programs or ideas. The struggling concept for many educators is when will it change again.
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