Teachers pay determined by success rate

i definitely agree with you on this one. I wanted to go to school to become a teacher, but in maine the starting salary is 22,000. and doesn't get much higher then that. I know i would be a good teacher. i love kids and love teaching. It would be frustrating for me to know i was making the same if not less then another teacher who wasn't very qualified. None of it makes any sense to me, but i know the reason i didn't become a teacher was the pay, which is sad.

I understand your point completely, but there a few things I want to address and explain. I have been watching money roll in my child's 85% free lunch, school for years now. See because so many children are on free to reduce lunch we get extra funding. Then there is the PTA, the money they bring in is sickening. There is also the volunteer reading program, more funding for having that. We are a Title 1 School, you got it, more funding. There are also other areas we receive money, but I can’t think off the top of my head at the momment. Now I am a setting member on my child's School-Based Decision Making (SBDM). We had a meeting last year towards the end, to figure out how to spend the excess moneys in the schools account. See if we didn't spend it, we would receive less money next year. It was a job to figure out what to use the money on! The tools are there, this day and time, trust me if the tools aren't thats because you have someone blowing the funds and not using them where they should go. Now as to the testing, the classrooms in the elementary schools here in my state can only have 25 – 27 students. Out of those maybe 5 are impossible to teach or are hard to teach children. A collective test score averaging all the students in the class, could fairly reflect the success rate in the room for that year. Thus providing adequate evidence as to whether or not the Teacher did perform her job sufficiently IMO. On a side note, what makes this idea so appealing to me, are teachers like the following. Last year a teacher was busted for doing her side job of tax returns during school, while her class had “free time” for 2 hours. She is still teaching since there wasn’t much of a hand slap for it. BUT of course every one of our teachers who now have her students, are complaining how these kids know very little of the skills they should have been taught the previous year when she had them. To me, this is not right. She can’t be fired, this didn't consitute grounds for termination of a Teacher, the Teachers Union had her back. So, I think a pay based on a class room evaluation would rid us of these poor teachers and be a HUGE step in the improvement of our children’s education.

I think if teachers' pay was based on their students grades there would be a lot less people that go into teaching. Wanting to teach is usually a calling a person feels to help children but those people need to pay their bills. The added stress of making their students perform well on tests would cause many teachers to just quit and more people to not even want to get into it. Plus, like the person above said, there is no way to make a student learn if they don't want to. A teacher could be putting every ounce of her being into teaching these kids but they could still fail and then what--she gets paid less for all her hard work. I think the idea is flawed at the basis. Student grades aren't always a direct correlation on how much effort a teacher puts into teaching. Teaching is a very high stress and sometimes very dangerous job. Teachers don't just work 40 hour weeks like most people. They are there an hour early and stay hours late and do work on weekends and grade papers after school. They deal with emotional problems their students have and are expected to know how to handle every situation. Inner city teachers put their lives at risk everyday they go to work. You never know when a bad grade or remark in class might result in a student shooting you or stabbing you. If anything teachers should be getting twice the amount they get now, no matter how their students are doing. My best friend is a high school English teacher at a school for kids that have been kicked out of their other schools. They are the ones no one else wants and it is a daily struggle just to get them to school. Most of these kids come from the inner city. Many of the kids at school wear dirty, raggedy clothes. Some only eat while they are at school (one meal a day and on weekends they don't eat). How do students learn if they are starving when they get to school because their parents can't afford food for them. They have no one at home to talk to or help them with their homework because either their parents work or just don't care. I think teachers in the US try very hard and put more effort into their jobs then they get paid for. Having their students' grades determine their pay would be like a slap in the face. Not to mention that standardized tests mean nothing and do not judge what a person learns. They only judge how a person takes a test.

4monster4me- At my children’s school, one and only one teacher, sent home a survey for parents to fill out on their children’s learning habits. Then he observed them for a week. Now his room is divided up in to sections. One section those children learn best by reading the information. Another section from having hands one. Another by music. and well I can't remember the other section. This was his choice, not the schools. He makes as much as the teacher across the hall that told me all year my child was a fine reader. Come to find out at the end of year, she is a year behind in reading! Now I am a volunteer parent, no training at all. I run a volunteer program that helps struggling readers. Most are not only struggling but are problematic students the teachers just want out of their classroom for a while. We volunteer parents have seen more results out of our students than has been seen in the class room in years. We find out what works and go from there. Nothing more than that. BTW we only see these kids once a week for 30 minutes. That tells me something. All it takes is motivation and determination and that horse will drink that water.