Houston to Link Teachers' Pay, Test Scores

Associated Press ^ | Jan 11, 2005 | JUAN A. LOZANO

[Pharmboy]

HOUSTON (AP) -- Houston is about to become the biggest school district in the nation to tie teachers' pay to their students' test scores.

School Superintendent Abe Saavedra wants to offer teachers as much as $3,000 more per school year if their students improve on state and national tests. The program could eventually grow to as much as $10,000 in merit pay.

The school board is set to vote on the plan Thursday. Five of the nine board members have said they support it.

"School systems traditionally have been paying the best teacher the same amount as we pay the worst teacher, based on the number of years they have been teaching," Saavedra said. "It doesn't make sense that we would pay the best what we're paying the worst. That's why it's going to change."

Opponents argue that the plan focuses too much on test scores and would be unfair to teachers outside core subjects.

Other school districts have adopted such programs in recent years. Denver, with 73,000 students, took such a step in November, becoming the biggest district to do so. Houston, with more than 200,000 students, is the nation's seventh-largest district.

Denver's program and others measure teacher performance not just on standardized test scores, but also on their subject certifications and other factors.

Traditionally, Houston teachers' experience and education levels have determined their pay scale. Starting teachers make about $36,000 a year. Salaries can rise to about $45,000 with advanced degrees and more experience.

Texas has no collective bargaining, meaning the teachers union can lobby the district for raises but cannot strike.

The Houston Federation of Teachers feels the plan is being forced on employees, said Gayle Fallon, the union's president.

"This plan is nothing but test scores," she said. "It's not well thought-out."

But for Monica Ramirez - a kindergarten teacher for Spanish-speaking students and the district's teacher of the year in 2004-05 - merit pay is an incentive.

"If we are not motivated, we cannot motivate our children," she said.

The plan is divided into three sections, with as much as $1,000 in bonus pay each.

The first would award bonuses to all teachers in schools rated acceptable or higher, based on scores on the state's main standardized test. The second ties pay to student improvement on a standardized test that compares performance to nationwide norms.

In the third section, reading and math teachers whose students fare well compared with others in the district would be eligible for bonuses.

Bonuses for all sections will be given only if students show improvement in the top half of scores.

Fallon said the plan is unfair to teachers in such subjects as art and music.

Saavedra expects the plan to cost $14.5 million the first year and increase by

[Pharmboy]

Houston--you're addressing a problem.

Excellent. Incentives should work...

[Alkhin]

Test scores don' mean the children are learning...the TAKS has become a numbers game for the administrators to play "who is most popular" with each other. None of the ADMINISTRATORS give a damn about how well the students are doing or whether not the teachers are teaching. Its all about maintaining a certain status.

i really cant see that tying test scores (which are often horribly manipulated) to salaries is going to be a good thing....just another cudgel to bop over the heads of teachers who stumble under the weight of paperwork.

I hate public schools. Administrators need their pockets cleaned out.

[dhs12345]

Still doesn't address the parents. Have to respect teachers. They are between a rock and a hard place.

If the parents don't care, a teacher's job is that much more difficult if not impossible.

[McLynnan]

You're right. Too many teachers are "teaching to the test" under pressure from administration. This goes on in even the best of school districts. I don't have a solution, but we have a big problem. TAKS has been a disaster.

[xrp]

Their JOBS should depend on students' 3rd party test performance.

[SoftballMominVA]

Unfair to those that teach special education also...but it is a step in the right direction.

[techworker]

Moral of the story, do not take a teaching job where there are too many poor people. If the shiftless bums don't care to push and crack down on their kids, teach in wealthy suburbs, or private schools only.

[pillut48]

Not so fast--this sounds like a good idea, BUT you really have to read the fine print--is one of the requirements that the student be ON target for that particular grade? Because there are many many students in public schools who are nowhere on grade level (when I taught fifth grade at an inner city school, NONE of the students were above Kindergarten level)--although students may gain a year of learning (ie moving from K to first grade level) the teacher may still NOT get this incentive, because her class is not on grade level...hope this makes sense. The school district I was in had planned the opposite, to punish teachers for students not on grade level at the end of the year (state tests) and there was such an uproar from the teachers that the admin. backed down.

Good luck to the teachers if there is a snowflake's chance in h*ll of them acheiving this incentive! God bless'em all.

[Freee-dame]

Teachers should receive a bonus for each student who improves more in one year than on the average of his/her previous two or three years. This would give an incentive to all teachers to maximize the learning of their students, whether they are high or low achieving students. Annual tests and tracking of achievement should be easy in this computer age. Ideas from teachers whose kids advance more than previously could help teachers whose students don't achieve as much.

[Freee-dame]

Teachers should receive a bonus for each student who improves more in one year than on the average of his/her previous two or three years. This would give an incentive to all teachers to maximize the learning of their students, whether they are high or low achieving students. Annual tests and tracking of achievement should be easy in this computer age. Ideas from teachers whose kids advance more than previously could help teachers whose students don't achieve as much.

[pillut48]

That's just garbage, because when you have teachers just 'teaching the tests' (NOT true thinking/reasoning skills) then you will have bunches of kids flunking the senior tests required to get their diplomas.

[Lizavetta]

I agree. The parents let their kids be truant, let their kids sass off in class and be disruptive and threaten lawsuits to any school who tries to stop it, don't demand their kids do homework, etc....how in the hell can a teacher get anything out of students like that?

[Rakkasan1]

making all schools privately held would eliminate all this
hocus pocus bs.

[pillut48]

Oh, yeah, that will solve ALL the problems of education!
Not.

I've taught in both low income schools and high income schools. Similar problems in both. In poor schools, parents are so involved in plain old survival skills that the kids come last on the list of things to worry about. In richer schools, the parents are so involved in keeping up with the Joneses that the kids come last on the list of things to worry about. (Doesn't apply to each and every child, of course, but certainly a large portion).

The kids are not to blame for the situations they are in, good or bad, but someone else was right--parents and their support and teamwork with the teachers are key to their success in any situation.

[King Moonracer]

Survey the parents in the beginning and at the end of the year, trim the outliers, rank the teachers, distribute the bonus.

[dhs12345]

Very little. Unfortunately, removing the offending kid from the class is not an option and so the rest of the students education suffers because of one kid.

[Chode]

and why would you NOT teach to the test??? i mean that IS the determining factor if the kid passes... right???

[McLynnan]

You're kidding, right? Isn't it better to lay the fundamentals and progress from there? The teaching consists of 2-3 weeks of cramming just enough trivia into their heads that they pass the test then it's back to business as usual. I've also heard of cases where students are put under additional pressure from teachers that if they don't pass the test the teacher will be "in trouble." What a motivator for all concerned.

[Renegade]

Explain how incentives in this situation work . Teachers DO NOT have a say in who sits in the classroom . Experienced teachers usually get the cream of the crop and newbies get the problem children . Special education children are mainstreamed into the regular classroom usually in increased numbers to newer teachers .
All this does is become an incentive to "teach the tests ."
The MAIN reason children do not achieve in the classroom is a lack of discipline incorporated in the home .Parents always complain that the teacher is at fault if the children do not get their dose of A's and B's . All you have to do is ask them what the student is studying and you will find the majority of time they don't know.
Schools have to compete with video games, Ipods, TV (MTV,BET,VH1) and others including SEX at the middle school level .
Until parents lay down the law that school and LEARNING comes first the scores will continue to bottom out .BTW, dumbing down to the middle is rampant . Can't have some children achieving while others fail . Our high school even employed a rule of no grade lower than 50% no matter what the student does . In reality it means you get 50% of your grade for taking up space in the classroom .
The teachers also do not set the curriculum. That matter is determined by the board of education . There are many programs selected by boards that are not worth the paper they are printed on .
You also should know that in many schools " FAILURE" of a grade level is not an option. That would be too much of a negative impact on the self esteem of the student . They go to the next grade and then THAT teacher greets students who are 1-2 or even more years behind in achievement level .
AND IMHO most of the classified students DON'T have a learning disability. They need an old fashioned kick in the ass. That would give them incentive to achieve . I've seen it all teaching for a period of 35 years. I did not baby the students. I expected them to learn. When you get that message across all the pieces fall into place . You also have to have the guts to fight the administration which raises their eyebrows when you push students to learn .
I will be the first to agree there is dead wood in education . The truth is the numbers are very small that fall into that category .
The liberal learning institutions ( colleges ) are also a major part of the problem . New graduates want to be friends with the students . They want to teach the humanistic methods and not hurt their self esteem . Unfortunately in a dog eat dog REAL world they send the students who graduate into the workplace jungle unprepared for employment .
Many who think teachers are overpaid will go ballistic when they find out that they will be paid more for student achievement levels rising .

[summer]

Unfair to those that teach special education also...but it is a step in the right direction.

I have long supported Merit Pay, but, recently, I found I had to change my position due to fact I previously did not know. I will share these facts with you.

First, I agree with you -- "unfair to those that teach special education."

Second -- Also unfair to those who are not teaching special education, but have special education students literally "dumped" into their general education classes fulltime because the school or district "has no other place to put these kids,"

These are kids who have already been retained two or more years. Maybe even three or four years, and some of these kids are now middle school aged, but still in elementary school.

How can a regular, general ed teacher possibly be competing on a level playing field if she has 25% of her students "dumped" on her because the school or district is violating local and/or state law because these administrators never got around to creating required alternative education programs for these kids already retained two or more years? And, some of these kids not even qualify for special ed. They have may have missed it by a few points. So they are officially UNqualified for it.

In the past, the districts would "socially promote" these kids ANYWAY. But, now, states like Florida prohibit that practice outright, and will financially punish a school district that still does it.

In short, you have teachers now in two groups, beyond special ed:

1) general ed teachers who have students "dumped" in their class because the administrators in the school and or district were too lazy or stupid or uncaring to ever think about local and state law and the students; and 2) general ed teachers who do not have such students.

Now, see if you can guess which teachers' class is likely to perform better on tests?

I will take a WILD guess that it is NOT the teacher who has students who should actually be in special ed.

So, that hard-working teacher, who spend 80% of her free time thinking of how to keep peace in that classroom, will not get merit pay, even though she hsa to work much harder than the teacher whose class has every student on grade level.

Merit pay sounds good in theory, and for a VERY long time I strongly supported it. But, I don't anymore. Not until there is a level playing field for all teachers to compete, and we are nowhere close to that yet. I would like to support it again, but knowing how screwed up schools districts can be, I also know how badly screwed certain GREAT teachers will be under a merit pay system -- because for whatever reason, their class is treated like a dumping ground. (I mean no offense to students by saying that; I am just making a point.)