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New Teaching Law UPDATED
Topic Started: Apr 11 2010, 10:01 AM (353 Views)
Foxby
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Emerald Guardian
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Update in latest post (as of April 16, 3:50 PM)

Before I begin, I'd like to mention that I have no idea where this applies to-- I know it applies in Florida, but it could be nationwide for all I know.

A law was recently passed through Congress that means teachers will now be paid based on their students' state testing scores.

Now, this is... sort of... almost... a step in the right direction. There are a fair amount of teachers who, frankly, don't teach. They suck at it. They don't like students.

However, this causes more problems than it solves. Let's look at two teachers.

Teacher A teaches an Honors class. His students mostly come from healthy, two-parent homes with both parents very supportive of education and plenty enough income between them to pay for supplies and incentives for their students to do well - shelling out cash for good grades.

Teacher B teaches one of the burnout classes-- his students mostly come from dysfunctional or neglectful families of all kinds, most of which don't care about their children's grades, some that outright oppose the educational system and encourage their kids to drop out as soon as they can so they can start collecting food stamps. A good amount of them are druggies, drunks, and frequently absent to begin with.

Teacher B frequently makes calls home for unexcused absences; the parents don't even bother to pick up, or they're busy at work and the message is deleted by the student. Maybe the reason Teacher B is teaching the burnout class at all is because he's an amazing teacher-- he does very well at turning terrible students into... let's face it, not incredible students, but B-and-C average students. But he can't get them all, and even the one he manages to salvage take maybe a few months to get turned around.

Under the new system, Teacher A will be making substantially more money than Teacher B.

Also, say I'm in Teacher C's class. Teacher C's fairly good at his job-- maybe not incredible, but he's an okay guy and does what she can. He also occasionally gets on my case for missing assignments. I don't like Teacher C, and want a way to get back at him.

FCAT's coming up, and I remember that teacher salaries are now based on what now? My FCAT scores. I bomb the test on purpose to lower Teacher C's salary, 'cuz I hate his guts.

So yeah.
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HAL-9000
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I'm afraid I can't do that.
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Would you really bomb your test just to fuck your teacher's pay check? Suicide much? I can see some kids who really have it out for there teacher doing something like that but... yeah.

In Canada, You can go teach in Northern Ontario, Where a bunch of Canada's Ingenous people live, Of course there all crazy drunks and savages and basically a bunch of crazies... But the money flows up there.

My teacher made enough to pay back his entire student loan by working up in Northern Ontario as a teacher for One Year... And he also paid back his tooth operation when a native smashed him in the face with her binder. It's a horrible experience, but you make tons and tons of money, Plus the goverment pays for everything, food, heat, gas etc.

I'm considering doing this for a couple of years so I can get financially stable.

Back on topic, I can see your point, Pay should be rewarded by progress and marks, If a class gets a class average around 65%, but next year, goes to 85% and so on, They get paid more, furthermore, The board should take into consideation the fact that some classes are like Northern Ontario and pay more for these more troubled classes...

Of course there are flaws to this system as well.
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Foxby
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Well, currently (the new system doesn't set in until next year, I think), pay is done by how many years a teacher's been working (experience) and how advanced degrees they have (knowledge). It's a good system, and if they just threw in, say, teacher evaluations every once in a while, it'd be just about perfect.
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Hannah
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It kinda seems like you're generalizing a lot. Like in Teacher A's instance. Just because they're in honors class does not mean that they come from perfect families. It means that they care about their life, and want to graduate. I was in honors, and yes, I do have a very well put together family, but I had tons of friends in those classes that did not have great situations. My best friend in fact has 7 kids in her family and divorced parents.

But, I do think that basing it on their salaries is not very fair. Perhaps they take into account what classes the teachers are teaching though. Because I'm pretty sure that those teachers that teach honors classes and such generally get paid more anyway. So I don't know if it's such a bad idea. Dunno, they'll have to wait and see if it works out.

Haha, besides, if you don't like it, don't become a teacher. lol
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Foxby
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Yes, it's a generalization, but it's entirely possible (even plausible, maybe even common).

And just because I'm not a teacher doesn't mean I shouldn't care about teachers. xP
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Foxby
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The law's been vetoed by Governor Crist (leading me to believe this is a Florida law, not a US law). The newspaper pretty much says "yeah, teachers and stuff were all like, THIS BILL IS FULL OF HOLES" so we'll see what happens.
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HAL-9000
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"OBJECTION!"

Your law has a bunch of holes in it!
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