D.C. Schools Chief Michelle Rhee Fights Union Over Teacher Pay

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I am still waiting for someone to tell me how the art, music, PE, special education etc., teachers would qualify for any "merit pay". Are the students in art going to be judged by a 3rd party as to the quality of their work? Is this evaluation going to go all the way down to the Kindergarten art projects? Who is going to pay for all of the evaluations? Who is going to make sure the evaluators are qualified? What happens when all the teachers are the best? Do you raise the bar or settle for all the teachers being above average, is that even possible?
Tenure does not protect bad teachers, it's just a target for politicians to shoot at to avoid giving school districts an adequate income.

Al of OH 9:13AM December 22, 2009

Don't tie teacher pay to student performance, tie school pay to school performance.
In Europe, the student "carries" the money with him or her, to any accredited school. Schools that can't convince parents to send their kids to them die.

Bob of CA 2:26AM December 22, 2009

Linking teacher pay to student performance doesn't make much sense.
Yer basic student is just a feisty animal like a mule, and to motivate it ya gotta use a carrot or stick.
Students don't get paid, so the carrot approach is out.
Readin' and 'ritin' and 'rithmetic
Taught to the tune of the hickory stick
So if ya don't have a workable carrot, then ya must use a little discipline, which is often even more lacking in black culture than in the general culture today. I used to pass a class of inner city monsters that was held in a park fieldhouse, presumably because of overcrowding. Now you had a teacher in front and an assistant at the door to keep the little angels from escaping out of the door! How can you blame some teacher for not being able to teach little monsters with such a total lack of discipline? How many black parents take their kids to the library, or white parents for that matter? You can't learn to read in a classroom with the meager assortment of boring books.

Linda Re of MN 11:44PM December 21, 2009

DC schools are still failing:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/interactives/dcschools/#fullseries
How can students succeed at school when their lives at home are in disarray? What DC schools need is a healthy dose of Whiskfair:
http://raleigh.craigslist.org/pol/1511049469.html
Good luck Michelle Rhee:
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2009/12/21/dc-schools-chief-michelle-rhee-fights-union-over-teacher-pay.html
And add Whiskfair to you fight.

Byron Marchant of NC 7:47PM December 21, 2009