Teacher World

If you are an advocate of rewarding teachers whose students perform well on state tests, I have a little, true story I would like to share with you which might bring some clarity to this issue. Before I start, I want to reinforce that this is just one story. There are more where this comes from, and I’m sure I am not the only teacher out there with a story such as this.

After several weeks of test prep activities, I gave the OAT Reading Practice Test to my students this past week. When I graded them, I was disturbed to find that one of my very capable students scored a 42%!!!!!!!! I was further discouraged when I studied some of his responses. For example, in spite of the fact that we had just completed a variety of summarizing activities emphasizing how to summarize various types and lengths of text, this student wrote a one sentence summary! One sentence!!!! How is that even possible? And when I talked to him after grading the test, he could offer no explanation for his poor performance and minimal effort. He just “didn’t know” why he had done so poorly and why he did not fully answer questions on the test. He just “didn’t know”!

Here is where the frustration comes into play for teachers everywhere, and this is what the public does not understand. I could masterfully teach every concept, skill, and strategy my students will need. I could stand on my head, do a song and dance routine, beg and bribe. But if they don’t feel like putting forth effort; if it doesn’t matter to them, it doesn’t matter what I do or how I do it! My effectiveness or ineffectiveness as a teacher surely should not be based on a test that students may not care about. I can talk about the importance of these tests till the cows come home, but if they don’t care, or if their parents don’t care, all of my words to the contrary don’t matter.

What we do in education is not always black and white. We deal with kids, and nothing is ever certain with kids except the uncertainty. Please don’t judge my effectiveness as a teacher on test results which are taken by students who may be uncertain about the test’s importance.

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After spending quite some time reading a variety of articles both for and against the issue of merit pay for teachers, I feel, as all teachers should, the need to weigh-in on this important issue. Especially as President Barack Obama plugged teacher bonuses based on student achievement in the first education policy speech of his presidency.

We all know that in education, as in any profession, there are employees who produce average work with average to little success, and are unmotivated to do much more. A common fallacy in the teaching profession is that it is predominately the veteran teachers who fit this scenario as they have become burned out and are simply waiting to retire. While I do not deny that I have seen my fair share of this condition, I must also adamantly state that this attitude has no age requirement. I have seen the same attitude in teachers fresh out of college, and some who have a few years under their belt. In teaching, as in any profession, our labor force ranges from the dedicated, hard-working, and tireless to the “I’ll-do-the-bare-minimum”, and various stages in between. The difference between the business and education world is that our teachers’ unions, which protect us in a multitude of important ways making our work places fairer and safer places to work, also do our profession the disservice of fighting to protect teachers, both young and old, who legitimately deserve to be let go. In the business world, job retention is directly related to job performance. If our unions did not work so diligently to protect teachers whose performance necessitated their being weeded out, does it not stand to reason that we would be left with a higher caliber of teachers who, by that very definition, are all deserving of merit pay?

I propose that unions should establish strict and multi-layered guidelines for teacher dismissal and should ensure that these guidelines are followed to the letter. But when thorough documentation proves a teacher’s unwillingness or inability to take the necessary steps to improve their teaching skills after a methodical, multifaceted evaluation process established by the union, it becomes counterproductive and hurts a school system when its union fights for that teacher. Allowing the administration to release these teachers from their contract would ultimately create a higher caliber school system which encourages respect from the community and makes it far more likely for these community members to support levies that pay all teachers in these schools the salary they deserve.

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