Someone mentioned merit pay, ie. pay for student performance. Let me say why I don’t think it is a good idea (at least in elementary schools). A teacher does not work alone. One is good at math, one is good in music. Our school had an outstanding music teacher and we won all the competitions from choir, to boy’s quartet etc etc. We (the other teachers) got the uniforms, bused the kids to music performances, looked after all the paperwork necessary so the music teacher could concentrate on composing and teaching only. That was part of the reason why we were the best in our district. We pulled together. Another example was sports teams. One person taught the kids but the rest of us helped him with his regular class. Another is specialist, I was good in math, taught my colleague’s class too and she was great with language, she taught my class too in that area.
And then, student performance is absolutely related to student IQ. If teachers were paid merit pay they could demand that no student be placed with them who did not meet a certain level of IQ.
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