Wednesday, January 17, 2007
"Maybe" on merit pay
Let’s talk about merit pay for schoolteachers. There is a big to do in the legislature and some of the wealthiest Arkansans are behind it. That makes it suspect since rich folks tend to think that, because they have somehow come by more loot than the rest of us, they must know more. The other side of this class warfare suggests that whatever the wealthy want must be motivated by greed and a dark desire to grind the rest of us into the ground.
Personally, merit pay sounds like a good idea, but I am not sure how we can best measure who is most meritorious. This business of putting everything on test scores just can’t be right. That sort of intellectual fakery is the same type of nonsense that suggests broadcasting should be run by the numbers. Now, I ask you, when was the last time your favorite program got bagged in the middle of its’ first season. People who don’t have good judgment like to hide behind numbers.
Not being a statistician or an educator, I think merit pay might be more attractive if it is based on many criteria; elements such as creativity and professional advancement. Are they helping other teachers? Do students perform well in the next grades and do they make it to college? Let’s be more fair than reducing teacher pay to some sort of numbers game.
(Broadcast January 18, 2007)
Personally, merit pay sounds like a good idea, but I am not sure how we can best measure who is most meritorious. This business of putting everything on test scores just can’t be right. That sort of intellectual fakery is the same type of nonsense that suggests broadcasting should be run by the numbers. Now, I ask you, when was the last time your favorite program got bagged in the middle of its’ first season. People who don’t have good judgment like to hide behind numbers.
Not being a statistician or an educator, I think merit pay might be more attractive if it is based on many criteria; elements such as creativity and professional advancement. Are they helping other teachers? Do students perform well in the next grades and do they make it to college? Let’s be more fair than reducing teacher pay to some sort of numbers game.
(Broadcast January 18, 2007)
