Study: Teacher bonuses fail to boost test scores

[proud2BlibKansan]

ATLANTA — Offering big bonuses to teachers failed to raise students' test scores in a three-year study released Tuesday that calls into question the Obama administration's push for merit pay to improve education.

The study, conducted in the metropolitan Nashville school system by Vanderbilt University's National Center on Performance Incentives, was described by the researchers as the nation's first scientifically rigorous look at merit pay for teachers.

It found that students whose teachers were offered bonuses of up to $15,000 a year for improved test scores registered the same gains on standardized exams as those whose teachers were given no such incentives.

"I think most people agree today that the current way in which we compensate teachers is broken," said Matthew Springer, executive director of the Vanderbilt center and lead researcher on the study. "But we don't know what the better way is yet."

more . . . http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7211258.html

[Starry Messenger]

1. Why is the current way broken?

I don't agree with that. Anyone with sense should have figured out that merit pay was utterly divorced from reality.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. It's broken because the folks doing this study needed something to study

Duh.

[Starry Messenger]

6. lol

You're right, what was I thinking? That's why I don't get those big bucks for dreaming up stuff like this. :D

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. "The way we compenstate teachers is broken..."

Broken? What's really broken? How about the way we treat teachers as peons, and have come to expect them to take on the shared responsibilty that also belongs to parents and students, as well as the placing of teachers in the line of fire to be exploited in destroying public education? :grr:

Am a teacher, and although most administrators mostly kowtow/succumb to the NCLB pressure, the majority of teachers I know HATE, with a vengeance, NCLB and how it has stopped them from being effective teachers in being able to teach and instill a life long love/want of learning in their students.

The bullshit of the NCLB is crippling our nation, our teachers, and most of all, our children.

[TexasObserver]

3. Recommend. Teachers can only teach the students they are sent.

So much of the focus on education is based upon a false premise: that poor test scores on standardized tests reflect the quality of the teachers for students.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. The best teacher with the highest scores in the wealthiest suburb

isn't going to come into the poorest urban district and raise scores.

We're having a hard time communicating that message.

[TexasObserver]

8. The most admirable teacher in my family is the one at the bad school.

The work she does there with the children of immigrants is truly amazing, but their school scores will never be high. People do not realize what it is like to teach kids whose families speak another language at home, families that get torn apart when someone gets picked up and deported on a sweep.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Spent most of the evening in an email list discussion about deportation

It's like a death. The families never see their loved ones again. So so sad.

We were discussing The Dream Act and our kids whose lives will change once it passes.

[TexasObserver]

12. Give me your tired, your poor ... hey, not you, Jose!

Big companies all over America hire immigrants who are here without documentation by the thousands. The same people who stuff the pockets of the GOP and like minded Democrats are the ones doing all the hiring of these folks.

Enforcement is more of a political show than anything. "Hey look we rounded some of them up!"

Too many Americans have compartmentalized their humanity, and have it safely roped off from anything without the label "American" on it. Ironically, it is often the ones who teach their children to sing on Sunday morning "red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight ...."

Once church service is over, it's back to "anchor babies" and "round 'em up!"

[w8liftinglady]

20. you are describing Ellis county to a "T"

a church on every corner...and the KKK has one of their biggest groups here.

It is hell.

[WinkyDink]

7. Because the curriculum and the state-made standardized tests do not coincide.

AND because in no way is the public-school academic curriculum as rigorous as it was 30 or 40 years ago.
Teachers---those who actually studied the subject more than they took "education" courses---had knowledge to convey, but are now asked, demanded, to be "a guide on the side, not a sage on the stage."
And so, you have students "teaching" each other in small groups. Goody.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Our curriculum is aligned with state, national and international standards

But test scores will never rise because kids aren't widgets.

[hayu_lol]

11. Some of these experts, instead of focusing on the teachers...

need to take a very close look at the students these teachers are attempting to reach and teach. "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink."

In today's world, many kids are not learning because they just don't care.

[SoCalDem]

14. They have eyes..

They know they have to go to school, but they don't see a "pay-off" at the end, so many of them focus on the "now", and say "screw it" to the later.

Many see their parents losing jobs & homes, and if it can happen to their parents, why would they think their own futures are bright & shiny?

And how many of the young kids today see their potential careers as "rock star, athlete, model, reality show star, skateboarder, etc", instead of architect, engineer, doctor etc? If these are the aspirations , why "waste" time learning stuff that won't be important?

WE know that school rounds people and enables them to face whatever is in the future, but when a person is a teenager, they do not think long-term:(

[SoCalDem]

13. Duh!

School is a buffet.. You can put the food out there, but it's up to the kids to actually learn.

the best teacher in the world cannot reach ALL the kids, or even maybe MOST of the kids.

Every kid is a unique being, with a different set of "issues" and a different pace & style of learning.

Pigeonholing kids into a one-size-fits-all school system does not work, and promises of extra teacher-money does not make kids smarter or better test takers..

[stray cat]

15. If I give a bonus to an incompetent employee it doesn't make them competent

Or make them care if they didn't care to begin with. Mertit pay encourages those who are already doing a good job but isn't what makes people good-that has to come from within

[xchrom]

16. Recommend

[Javaman]

17. Why do we deprive poor schools that need materials?

doesn't that sort of make things worse?

I have no issue with rewarding teachers who do a good job, but the flip side is, why to we take away money from schools that do a "bad" job when restricting funds only makes things worse for them?

One would think that a poor school that does poorly would be the one that would need better materials.

My dad was a mechanic then a teacher and he would always say the following, "a mechanic is only as good as his tools".

If we keep underfunding the poorer district schools, doesn't that leave the teachers in those same districts at a deficit?

I'm not talking about rewarding failure, I'm talking about giving the teachers the basic tools in order to do their jobs.

Am I wrong in thinking this?

[w8liftinglady]

18. I agree-my friend teaches in a low-income neighborhood

the teachers are out of pocket a large chunk of change just so the kids can have what they need...and they haven't seen a COL raise in 4 years...welcome to f'ing Texas.

[Javaman]

21. Yup...

I have a friend who was tired of paying out of pocket at a elementary school in South Austin. The school was grossly underfunded because it was labeled an "under achieving" school.

Luckily, she is bilingual and was able to communicate to the parents what needed to be done. Sadly, the parents didn't give much credence to basic education. Most of the kids were first gen Americans and their parents coming from third world countries didn't see the benefit of even finishing 6th grade. So it was a constant up hill battle of not only educating the kids but the parents as well. Granted there were some parents go "got it" but many didn't. So when you have a huge portion of the student population that 1) doesn't get support from their own parents and 2) have english as a second language, the students are born into a deficit.

She would be in tears when she would have to give these kids the tass test. The kids were smart, but they were at a loss without a complete command of the english language when taking the test, so as a result the schools over all outcome on the tests were bad.

So the supplies would be cut due to budget cuts based on that stupid ass tass test.

She also tells me that most elementary teachers teach toward the tass now and not real education.

It's about money and not helping the kids.

It's so freaking heart breaking. And because the right wing nuts do not want to believe that over half of the population of this state is bi-lingual or speak Spanish only, the poorer neighborhoods will continue to get the short end of the stick funds-wise.

Until they allow bi-lingual tass tests, nothing will change. And frankly, I believe, that's what the repukes are trying to prevent. Because they know as sure as shit that the Spanish speaking portion of Texas would vote overwhelming Dem. Right now, they virtually don't vote at all, because they believe no one is trying to help them at all.

Which to an extent is true given our red state mentality.

My friend couldn't take it anymore. She moved on to another school that would get funds, but sadly she said, the kids aren't as interesting.

BTW, Howdy Neighbor. North Austin, here. :wave:

[w8liftinglady]

23. sigh.I'm so jealous...Red Oak here...bastion of liberalism.

:pals:

[kwassa]

19. What? Teachers aren't assembly-line workers, getting a piece rate on test scores?

Who knew? :shrug:

and all that Gates and Broad foundation money pushing this very idea ....

Proving, once again, that these "reformers" have no evidence to back up their educational remedies.

[Fire1]

22. This is too sad. "But we don't know what the better way is yet."

These folks are SOOOOOOOOO far off base!! I just shake my head.