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If MERIT PAY is now enacted in Idaho..then why oh why don't they test at the start of the year, and then the end!
How can you really know if the students are doing better!
One test-not the best!
If MERIT PAY is now enacted in Idaho..then why oh why don't they test at the start of the year, and then the end!
How can you really know if the students are doing better!
One test-not the best!
What about the students who don't like you who will throw the test? They need to pin passing the class on the test.
That only works if the students care about passing the class. Ask Pythonis about that.
True. Maybe we need to give students truth serum before we test them. Now, wouldn't that go over big with the public that wants to crucify teachers.
We, really, can't win here. Testing students just isn't a good measure of how well we teach. I would much rather you simply come into my room on random occaisions and watch me teach. Judge what *I* do not what my students do. I don't control what they do.
For some students, gains are not made in a year...growth is incremental, but nonetheless, learning is achieved...I have always wondered where they would put SPED teachers, especially those working with Severely Multiply Disabled, and Most Severe on that whole test spectrum...do we just get cut out? I left before that was ever really discussed much. (Yea!)
What about the students who don't like you who will throw the test? They need to pin passing the class on the test.
My son taught 2 years in a packing house town. For those not making the connection, this means having 1/2 the school or more being recent immigrants (and yes, some illegal).
To grade a teacher in this environment using anything other than a test at the beginning of the year and the end of the year to determine merit pay would be ludicrous. AND, you had better base the student's final test on them passing the course or many of these students will blow the final test just to "get" their teacher.
In one of the most profound comments my son made teaching at this school, he mentioned how happy he was that he caught a couple of the students cheating. Until that happened, he didn't think they cared at all about their grades.
Jennifer5521: I am a N. Idaho teacher - in full agreement. I teach at a tiny high school with a graduating class of just twenty. Each class is so small that it has a character all to itself. Last year 94% of my students passed the science Isats, this year just 67%. But all of this years students improved over their 7th grade scores. Good? Bad? Certainly not ideal. But basing my pay on either - without other factors - would be mistaken.
Furthermore...If I prepare my class for the next year so well that they pass the entry exam to the next grade, the next years teacher gets all the merit pay .
So we all know where this is going...
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Btw
Now, wouldn't that go over big with the public that wants to crucify teachers. 
, this year just 67%
. But all of this years students improved over their 7th grade scores
.
