JCPS takes steps toward merit pay (middle school, compensation, child care)

[The Dissenter]

JCPS Teacher rewards, student scores linked | The Courier-Journal | courier-journal.com

For the first time, teachers at some underachieving Jefferson County public schools will be rated on how well they raise student achievement, potentially earning them extra compensation such as cash bonuses, free health-club memberships or subsidies for child care.

The site-based councils at Olmsted Academy North, Stuart Middle School and Westport Middle School — three of the five public schools in the county identified last fall by the state as being “persistently low achieving” — have voted to use the “transformation model” to overhaul their schools. That model includes tying annual teacher evaluations to student performance.

I do not support student performance based pay for teachers because of the incidence of apaethic students and parents and think this is a direction JCPS is heading.

[Crew Chief]

AMEN! Rating teachers based on their student scores is almost as ridiculous as basing wether forecater's pay on they amount of precipitation. While I believe that many critics of education are well-meaning, most of their suggestions are just not workable in the real world classroom.