Valuing Physics over P.E.? Wouldn't it be better to evaluate talent?

So today I read an article about different pay for different positions in a school versus the traditional every teacher makes the same pay scale, Valuing Physics over P.E. ....     As a math teacher on a personal level being paid more is rarely disagreeable, and I know that I am severely underpaid by what I can make in the private sector.  But the top pay in this district for Elementary and P.E. is 61K and for HS math is 82K --  that is a 30%+  premium, that is a lot.  (And again realize I am the person most likely to benefit from this.).  And this system still has the pitfalls of the previous system.

I again see this as education's way not to deal with individual teachers and still group employees (teachers) versus actively lead them (manage).  This is an attempt to sub-divide and simplify -- it does not allow for greatness in elementary (and who knows if it deals with crappy performance in the higher paid categories?)  I know there are great elementary teachers in a district of 3000+ educators that should be compensated well, I also know there are mediocre math educators who probably should not get top end pay of 61K even.  The issue is how to review and reward (also how to improve & motivate but that is a whole other can of worms)  -- and this system has the same deficiencies as all schools -- it rewards by job category - because adminstration cannot or does not know how to reward by performance.



I still cannot overcome how different it was in the private sector versus public education.  The private sector is easier though, the end product is easily defined in the private sector -- sales, profit, number of widgets.  Education is not a widget making industry - how a student is taught K-4 is the best indication of how well they will do in High School.  We need to get "rock stars" into the elementary grades but that also means evaluating and rewarding the "rock stars"  -- the system cannot greatly reward very good teachers.  Yet this system caps what elementary makes, and still treats all teachers as simple assembly workers - where they are just interchangeable. 


As person who went from engineering to HS math - I know we have a broken pay system, period.  We evaluate on categories because administration refuses to evaluate and reward.  We must make teaching close to the private sector, while realizing we aren't making widgets, and we must reward the "rock star" teachers wherever they are.  We must evaluate talent and reward it.

('How' is something I will think about and post my ramblings later....)

Teacher Evaluation

Right now there is talk about how to evaluate teachers, about creating systems because "bad" teachers are a theoretical problem.  So we need a system - that is ok, prior to teaching I was judged by performance and I don't have a problem with it -- except our real product is not seen for about 5 years following HS!  But let me reiterate I have no problem with being evaluated and no problem using student results.

In business it was simply profit, did I do my job so we made money.  The problem I have with our educational system is we use age to determine whether a student it meeting expectations (a sophomore should "blank"')  - every student is different and thus every goal should be different.  I have sophomores who find the testing a joke because it is so easy and others who are taking Pre-Algebra and are not ready for the tests.  Then to top it off the students have no reason to perform well, a student can just answer whatever and there is no recourse (take it from me -- I have seen students just answer B the whole way on the entire test...).

But we need to evaluate!  We need to measure and we need to make continuous improvement!  So we need to work hard at data and expectations.  How do we know we are getting good data is a tough one!  And as a math teacher how do I know that the person evaluating me even understands what I am teaching?  These are the type of things running through my head after listening to a presentation about the new teacher evaluation system being implemented here in Wisconsin.  I believe in pre and post testing every year, I think we need to make sure that students move forward every single day.  And the research about poor teachers does require us to make sure they are not a permanent fixture in the school.  But is this rating system really going to get rid of the poor teachers, should it be the evaluation system's "'job."

The thing about "bad" teachers is we already know who they are -- the real problem is administration.  Prior to teaching I worked union and non-union shops --- and when I had a "bad" employee the only difference was I needed to do "special" forms in the union setting to get rid of "bad" employees.  I formed a plan and the "bad" employee either improved or was gone.  In either setting, union or non-union they got "canned."   In education administrators are typically pussies (excuse the language, but it is true).  They complain about the union but really they just don't want to do their job and be the bad guy.  They don't do the observations, don't write the plans and don't do the firing.  And with the standard 2 year probation period that teachers have about 3/4 of "bad" teacher problems should not happen, but again the typical administrator just gives too many chances.  They need to "student-up" and do their job....

So I do not fear for myself or my school.  I feel I will do well and our school's scores are "good."  But I also realize that  government will pick the rules and they do not know or understand the needs of schools; there will be a ton of forms, tests, etc and that will take away from resources for students.  And the worst part is it will most likely not solve the problem, it will make educators feel prosecuted and really that keeps young people from becoming teachers.  So the best and brightest won't teach. (It also puts small districts in a real bind because of the bureaucracy.)

So it comes down to this in my opinion, pre/post test, make administrators jobs dependent on results too that will force them to be the "bad" guy when they must be.  And stop screaming about "bad"' teachers, overall they are small group, just make the "bosses" handle them.  And finally respect educators - so the best/brightest see it as a respected career choice, right now we are making an environment where teaching is not well respected.  And that keeps the best/brightest away, and in 10 years that problem will really show.....