I use the full $250 every year for classroom supplies, software, books, etc. and deduct it from my taxes. Depending on the semester (what IPS is providing and what students are needing), sometimes it's for the basics, sometimes for extras. I've gone over a couple of years, purchasing "bigger" items, but I don't want to specify what I purchased because it will make me identifiable to those who work at my school.
To the above posters, I have done both! I use the $250 on my taxes and try to do at least one of the teacher reimbursements. I don't even keep track of the money I spend on shirts, belts, etc. because I get them from Dollar General who has a nice assortment of uniform shirts cheap. The last couple of items I have tried to have funded by DonorsChoose only to have my request go unfunded. I calaculate I totally spend about $800 for things like transparency paper,folders, pens, pencils, chart paper,composition books, poster boards, enlargements, etc.
School 15 is crazy when it comes to copy paper, copiers, and # of copies. First of all, the secretary is only allowed to fill the copiers once a day with paper. Second, we are limited to only 600 copies per month. If you are one of the unfortunate ones to have an afternoon prep, you'll never find paper in the copiers because it's all been used up. Finally, we only have 2 working copiers in the building and recently our access to the library copiers was taken away. I spend my own money to buy cases of paper and I don't know how much longer I can afford to keep doing that.
On top of that, each grade level and department was given a small amount of funds with which to buy whatever supplies for the next school year. The money wasn't even equally distributed. Kindergarten with their 5 classes received $250 and 6th grade with their 2 classes received $250 as well. Ridiculous. The principal has said that now that we have these funds, he will no longer be providing copy paper into the copiers. So...the supplies bought with this money must last us until January of 2011. Good luck to the poor teachers at 15.
I end up buying all sorts of things: markers, copy paper, 3 x 5 cards, folders, etc. You name it, I buy it. I have had some luck with Donors Choose...be sure to see how one's that get chosen are written (that's what I did and after my third try I finally got funded). Too bad the district isn't more proactive about how the money gets spent.
Printer Ink! Why the school does not copy important things rather than send it in e-mail is beyond me. I print messages, directives, and other times regularly.
In addition to printing kids grade reports and my own worksheets that go with the curriculum. Our district did not by the boxes as they have in the past with this information. Leaving us to print them ourselves.
MAPS- Wish the district/schools would proved up to date pull down maps like we had when growing up over various times. In addition to run off outline maps that can be easily copied. So that kids understand and ID places we are covering in our curriculum.
I think I know the answer to this question,but, please tell me why there is so much copying going on in the schools? Please don't take this as a smart alec question. Thanks
Well in elementary schools, you have weekly progress reports, homework (you can't trust students to take books home....they won't come back!!!!), morning work assignments, supplemental materials, intervention items, etc. Just what I came up with off the top of my head.
I think we also need to learn some paper-saving habits...I can usually find enough paper in the recycle bin to copy things on the reverse side of..I can't believe how much is thrown away...
No it is not a smart alec question, my daughter's school in Hendricks county (guess which town) has several handouts per day. It is part of the educational curriculum. I see it daily in her homework sheets which I go over and correct. Between the math sheets, the night writes, and the timed readings that we do on a weekly basis, by the end of the year it is a big stack of hanouts. It is part of the educational process. Face it, Gutenberg (sp?) changed the world, Xerox just made it go faster!
To the person complaining about a lack of maps, you clearly don't use the resources available to you. I have three different pull down maps as well as a huge wall map I inherited from a former IPS teacher. Infact, I don't even have space to mount one of the drag down maps. How did I get so many? Treasures. I don't know if they still have them, but for several months they had a HUGE stack of all kinds of different pull down maps. For your cheap up front fee (35 I think) that map alone is worth around 1000.
It is pretty SAD that I have to come out of pocket for boxes of tissues, pencils, and cleaning supplies for my classroom. I thought that the principal was suppose to order the necessary supplies for their buildings. Somebody is not doing their job!
I use the $250 too, probably a little more. I have never bought uniform clothing though. They have some stuff at the office, but I don't care enough about the uniform policy to spend much energy enforcing it, let alone financially supporting it, lol.
I spend more money each year, just so that my studets have the same materials as the township schools. I purchase clothes, underwear, shoes, and just made a huge purchase at Dollor Tree on gloves for next year. I was was even in on the purchase for a prom dress, job interview suits, and the correct size bra for a young student (thanks to my fellow female teachers for handling this one). I purchase my own cleaning supplies, and keep my room safe condition.
Consumables will always be a problem but for other items such as shelves, cabinets or other furniture, everyone needs to remember the old mallory supply building. There are acres of old furniture just being wasted sitting there. Some of it is junk, but much of it could be cleaned up and reused. If people went in and asked nicely, I see no reason they wouldn't be allowed to look around.
Quite a week it was for America's public schools and their teachers, in terms of attention in high places and highs and lows of esteem.
For a man who courted teachers and teacher unions to get their votes for his election, Obama has turned on us. He doesn't think beyond the end of his nose.
On Monday, a few days before Indiana learned it had lost out in the "Race to the Top" derby, President Barack Obama hailed the mass firing of a high school faculty (since reinstated) in Rhode Island and proposed still another program to reward punishers of schools.
Obama is just like our IPS administrators; he's into punishing teachers and making them the blame for all that's wrong in our public schools. He is catering to America's need for a 'villain' and why not pick on teachers; everyone else is. He's demonizing us and not one of us is aware that he used us to get elected and then turned on us, just like a snake.
You can't blame Obama on Indiana not getting Race to the Top money. That fault lies with many Indiana school corporations who were in denial and did not wish to participate in that program. All of our surrounding states received it but then their schools systems participated. Where is our state school leadership? Tony Bennett is too busy bashing teachers.
Tony Bennett, Obama, anyone and everyone are bashing all teachers presently. It's popular in bad times to have a villain, a demon on which to point fingers and cast blame. It crosses party lines -- this bashing and this demonizing.
As far as other states winning anything, the 16 states recently named are only 'finalists', not winners. And since when do we allow education to become a part of competition, races, games, etc.? This "Race to the Top" is disgusting to many because it's nothing more than a political game with schools and teachers being used as political pawns.
Talk about a slap to the faces of all the teachers who supported him...
On Monday, a few days before Indiana learned it had lost out in the "Race to the Top" derby, President Barack Obama hailed the mass firing of an entire high school faculty in Rhode Island and proposed still another program to reward punishers of schools. He ain't our friend, like we thought. Personally, I'm really disappointed.
At least when you're dealing with a Tony Bennett type you know you're dealing with the bad guy, the man in the black hat. You can be ready for him because you know what to expect in advance. On the other hand, Obama came into office as the good guy, the man wearing the white hat. We were not prepared for him to turn on us. That's a really big disappointment to a lot of people.
Do you really think these changes demonize teachers? Because i feel the opposite, that it's finally being recognized what a real profession teaching is and how very valuable good teachers really are. Ten years ago, they treated us like pieces in an assembly line. Like all of us were exactly the same and if everyone did the same thing, we would get the same result. Now they're talking about merit pay and trying to find ways to recruit the best teachers. Researchers are locating great teachers and actually asking them what they are doing differently? While some of the details of reforms are irritating, I think it really puts a spotlight on educators as important to the future of this country. I guess giving a profession credit for success will automatically cast blame on lack of success, but to me, the credit is the important part. Teachers are finally being given credit for their results. It's a long time coming, and I think it will have an amazing positive impact on the future of public education.
@Considering the heavy-handed federal intrusion in education represented by Race to the Top, be thankful Indiana was not a finalist.
I agree. A few smart states opted not to participate in this silly game, race, competition. Anytime the federal government 'gives' you money, be aware there will be strings attached. You become the puppet, and the feds will pull your strings forever and you will dance to their tune whether you wish or not.
I deal with IPS data surrounding assessment results from Scrimmages, Benchmarks, ISTEP, etc. I am privy to scores from countless schools. One particular school is a pilot school this year for Bonus or Merit Pay for a few teachers who elected to participate.
Lo and behold, when the first Bonus checks were awarded, ALL the participating teachers received their bonuses. Yet, some of the teachers did not meet the prerequisites which were vaguely set out from the get-go. It is a sham at this point. The Ed Center administration wants to prove that Bonus Pay works so they decided to give all the participating teachers the mid-year bonus. Now, the Ed Center can say, at least on paper, that Bonus Pay works! It might work, but only if the guidelines are well developed and then followed.
What is the name of the pilot school? What were the prerequisites vaguely set that some of the teachers did not meet? Surely you understand that anyone can post made-up nonsense on this blog (and often do) so you might provide enough information for the reader to verify your accusations (which, to be frank, sound fabricated.)
@Do you really think these changes demonize teachers?
Changes are not demonizing teachers, but attitudes of society are.
When the President of the US brags about the wholesale firing of an entire high school faculty in Rhode Island, I'd say that's demonizing teachers in general. For sure, there had to be some good teachers in that RI high school, don't you imagine? Surely, not all the teachers fired were incompetent, were they? No.
Obama's hailing this wholesale firing of an entire faculty only adds fuel to the fire that keeps our current society believing that teachers are the blame for all the ills in our culture. To the average Joe on the street, this bit of bragging by Obama just reinforced what old Joe always suspected -- that teachers do nothing, have all summer off, are lazy, etc. Yes, Obama legitimized the current demonizing of teachers.
If you check, you will find that only one IPS school was chosen by Dr. Johnson to pilot the Bonus Pay initiative. IPS data is available to many people who handle it during the various stages from assessment day to its return to the teachers.
You're saying that a merit pay pilot school was set up with volunteer teachers and they didn't do better than other schools? That's idiotic. Of course they would do better. Do you think if someone offered money to recruit the best chefs, that you would get better roasted chicken than what you would get in a standard restaurant? Don't you think salesmen who competed for a bonus would do better than salesmen who wouldn't even enter the competition? Unless I'm misunderstanding your post, your post doesn't even make sense. Of course only the best teachers would volunteer for merit-pay programs, and of course they would do better than not-the-best teachers who would refuse to participate in such a program.
As far as Rhode Island, it had continuously ranked in the bottom 5% of the state, so it had to transform, or be taken over. The union refused to agree to the transformation plan, so they fired all the teachers and then will hire some of them back. This was the only way they could do it legally due to the union. I completely agree with this decision, and I hope they do the same thing in IPS. I would get my job back. Would you?
Bonus Pay teachers are called Master Teachers. One of the Master Teachers was unaware they were a Master Teacher. This teacher is a Fellow, a first year teacher, did not interview to be a Master Teacher, and had no idea of the elevated status until late in the first semester. Yes, this person received the mid-year bonus.
The Ed Center can fool some of the people some of the time. It can fool some of the people all the time; however, it can't fool all the people all the time.
Thoughts from some schools about Bonus/Merit Pay --
Board Action Plan Feedback IPS #74 Focus Area: Number Six Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. Pg# 32-33 Merit Pay If this is thought out carefully. This can be very beneficial to teachers and the district as a whole. However, the concern is that there will be certain schools where teachers will always receive Merit Pay, and some schools that would never receive it. For example, Magnet Schools have different demographics and major differences in the amount of resources and parent support. This can be looked at as an unfair advantage compared to teachers that are in boundary schools where there are issues with attendance, parent support and resources that are at some boundary schools. There are factors that are out of the teachers’ control that does not make this a fair way to determine teacher pay. Pg. 32 Bonus pay should be considered to recruit and retain teachers in high demand areas like speech therapy, school psychology, special education, math, science. How would non classroom teachers meet standards for bonus/merit pay because they may not be providing direct instruction that can be measured by student test scores/benchmarks? Pg. 32 All of these merit or bonus…(nor will it take away from base pay) Pg. 33 Good idea, but now can this be applied to Special Ed, Related Arts, Title, ESL, etc. There needs to be clear & concise objectives & standards identified for these areas for their merit/bonus pay.
Board Action Plan Feedback IPS #103 Focus Area: Number Six Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. ♦ Concern about fairness for teachers who do not have GT kids or for those classes that are just low in general. How will criteria be documented for bonus/merit pay? If your principal likes you, then you will score higher and probably get a bonus pay.
Board Action Plan Feedback IPS Center for Inquiry Focus Area: Number Six Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. ♦ Merit pay is always a concern – lends to being subjective. I don’t know if there is an easy way to determine fair merit pay. ♦ There must be accountability across the board so we have teachers, parents, administrators and students who all believe that ALL children can and have the right to learn. I see words on the plan but no accountability to parent programs being implemented or varying mentorship opportunities. ♦ Merit Pay/Bonus Pay could definitely present a problem among teachers. Some teachers will become so competitive they will focus on the increase pay and not the students and some may even resort to cheating to make sure they get the bonus pay. I know most teachers would not do this, but as we all know and have seen/heard in the news, there are some teachers that will be that driven to be recognized and compensated by any means necessary, especially with the pressures from the district. I think a better solution would be extra pay for extra work not necessarily tied to student ISTEP scores etc. I do believe that teachers who are burning the candle on both ends should receive compensation for all the extra hard work to improve their practice and work on student improvement. ♦ The “value-added” bonus seems to me that it could become subjective even though it is intended to be objective. Some teachers may never be considered because only the “favorites” might get that compensation. I can also see that teachers in areas such as special education will not want to teach the learner who is at capacity due to a disability. What about that teacher, how will that teacher be eligible for merit/bonus especially if it is based on ISTEP scores? Also, there are many students who do not test well on standardized test since they are culturally biased but they are achieving and performing in their academies, how will that be taken into account for merit? What about the special area teachers, how will they receive merit/bonus pay? It seems to me that merit/bonus pay would cause lots of problems in the teaching staff. ♦ I forgot one more item regarding the merit/bonus pay: how will we evaluate the teacher who helps students be more principled and learn social skills, communication skills, time management and organization skills? These items may not be evaluated and recognized on ISTEP scores. ♦ How about staff who are in special areas? ♦ Why don’t teachers use peer evaluations in addition to test scores? Board Action Plan Feedback IPS Center for Inquiry ♦ Is this based on test results? How are teachers in special areas recognized since tests are not involved in their jobs?
Board Action Plan Feedback IPS #31/32 Focus Area: Number Six Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. • Merit and bonus pay----no way!! • Division heads should not be in control of personnel cuts. We have a system in place that works well and is fair. Seniority does not protect bad teachers. Rather, administrators who do not evaluate and mentor properly do. The PIP process would eliminate low-performing teachers if principals would do their job.
Board Action Plan Feedback IPS Cold Spring School Focus Area: Number Six Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. ♦ Good idea – I think that the entire idea of a merit system needs to be transparent and have involvement at multiple levels – can’t just be district personnel that have been out of the classroom for a decade evaluating people ♦ This will create competition among teachers. I feel that many teachers will begin to lose integrity. Teachers would be less likely to share ideas with others. ♦ I don’t think there is an accurate way to evaluate that. I also believe that you will have teachers in competition instead of putting students first. You will also have teachers not being honest with their test results. ♦ How do we monitor teachers to be sure they are not cheating to make their classes look better? ♦ Merit pay and Bonus pay will increase competition, decrease trust among colleagues, destroy teacher collaboration and take the humanity out of teaching. I don’t know any teacher that wants Merit Pay. Teachers deal with humans, not machines. That’s why the factory model of education does not work with children.
Board Action Plan Feedback IPS #616 and #687 Focus Area: Number Six Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. Many ideas were exchanged as follows about merit pay: - Do not feel merit pay can be based on subject(s) only or your particular student outcomes for many reasons: (Sp. Ed. Issues, how do you include P.E., art, music, title) Math and E/LA teachers are unfairly targeted Looking at levels of Merit: Professional: - District already pays according to level of education -Pay teachers to attend professional development related to instructional strategies specific to IPS student needs (and provide the training free) -Pay teachers for afterschool committee work related to School Improvement/Student achievement (also, team meetings, staff meetings, CPG groups, expectations of achievement and participation in these groups) Performance: If based on student outcomes (ISTEP achievement, predicators, High School Testing) , merit pay could be a % to the entire team (all subjects – including administration- ex. 1% bonus pay for a 10% increase or a set bonus of a $$$ amt. to all teachers and administration. If a merit pay is selected, then teachers would have input into scheduling of classes – a team decision for each level (elementary, MS, and HS) Scheduling is part of instruction and success
Board Action Plan Feedback IPS #58 Focus Area: Number Six Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. • Concern about merit or bonus pay due to the performance of the special education students being held to the same standards. • How would achievement of district employees be tracked?
Board Action Plan Feedback IPS Alternative Education and Options Focus Area: Number Six Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. ♦ This has long been a controversial topic. Offering bonuses is a good idea. Most occupations that provide incentive bonuses are based on something measurable that reflects a job well done – such as sales volume or number of good secret shopper evaluations. When you are dealing with teachers, it is a little harder to identify a way of judging when someone should get a bonus. People have mentioned student test scores, parental observations, and administrator observations. It all comes down to the opinion of one person on the good qualities of another. If there was some way to fairly rate a teacher in order to give the bonus, this would be an excellent idea. ♦ Merit and bonus pay will never be fair if it is based on student performance. It seems to reason that only teachers with high performing students would benefit from this type of program. ♦ If merit and bonus pay should be instituted, it should be both teachers and administrators to decide the criteria. ♦ My concerns are: ~ What does everyone consider effective performance? ~ What will be the criteria? ~ Who will pay for the bonus since the district is facing an insurmountable budget cut? ♦ Question: Are we talking about building level administrators? If Mr. Knazze was paid $1,000 for every student that he has made a difference for, the merit/bonus plan would quickly evaporate. While the concept is good, I don’t see it being administered fairly. ♦ Great idea! These are truly the individuals that are the nuts and bolts of our school district. ♦ Include a variety of “success factors” in determining merit pay, to include the programs that are designed to affect student behavior, attendance, as well as academics through acceleration.
It's good and very interesting to read some thoughts from different IPS schools about Bonus or Merit pay. Apparently not too many are in favor of Merit Pay for valid reasons. These thoughts are responses from the Superintendent's Action Plan as of 12/9/09. Will he take into account the thoughts of the schools or not?
Most places that are using merit pay are basing it on student improvement, not overall test scores. Why does nobody in these feedback plans address this. Who is giving the feedback? Are they informed about how merit pay actually works? I don't know about you all, but I have the toughest problem getting a year's achievement with the kids who are ahead. Because if I have a kid who is already two grades above grade level, it's tough to advance him up a year while keeping his teaching material age appropriate. I find it much easier to bring a child who is two years behind up to where he is only one year behind. I also have no knowledge of any merit pay pilot program. Did they base it on student improvement or overall student achievement? If they did it on the latter, they were intentionally setting it up to fail.
The feedback is from teachers all at IPS schools. It was gathered in early December, 2009. Teachers were requested to complete the Superintendent's Action Plan Feedback Form, submit them to their building principal who, in turn, compiled the results and forwarded them to the Superintendent.
Here's feedback form from Harshman. I suspect the principal wrote it to look good in the Superintendent's eyes. ---
Board Action Plan Feedback HARSHMAN MIDDLE SCHOOL Focus Area: Number Six Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. “Merit based pay sounds AWESOME!”
Board Action Plan Feedback Shortridge Magnet High School Focus Area: Number Six Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. • How do we make these positions fair and equitable in terms of applying for or receiving when considered support and not direct teacher? • Mentor bonus or Merit bonus?
I don't work in IPS, I teach at an inner city charter school with a merit bonus system. The fact that these are teachers giving the feedback is troubling. Many obviously have no desire to understand how merit pay works and are threatened by the mere concept. Most people appreciate ways to be recognized for their skills.
As an IPS educator, I can assure the above poster that at no time has anyone from HR or the Ed Center met with teachers to explain Merit/Bonus Pay nor have we received any written documentation from the Ed Center administrators how they envision the Bonus/Merit pay piece to work out. We simply were shown a PowerPoint at each school showing the Action Plan for the district. It was merely a list of the plans with no explanation or definitions provided.
Board Action Plan Feedback Northwest High School Focus Area: Number Six Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. In order for the district to implement a merit plan for teachers, the teachers must have the opportunity to add suggestions to the plan. The question must be asked, “How is the plan determined and will it be accurately implemented?” If the merit plan is determined by testing, the students must be tested at an appropriate level and the test must be accurate. How will this be measured fairly? Merit and bonuses sound good, but safeguards will need to ensure fairness. When this was done, it became subjective. More guidelines. Best done outside of school with evaluations and decided by district. Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. I am definitely against the merit system for teachers. How can this be fair? Each teacher cannot be guaranteed students with the exact same strengths and weaknesses. I have heard that states that have gone to merit pay have stopped because of the massive cheating among teachers. The students are the ones who should be working for merit grades or rewards. Student achievement belongs with the students and should not be the responsibility of the teacher. NO merit pay idea!!!! Teachers in certain schools will receive disproportionate amounts of money.
The most honest feedback yet. . . from Arlington CHS ---
Board Action Plan Feedback IPS Arlington Community High School Focus Area: Number Six Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. ♦ Teacher bonus and merit pay is the way. I need more money! To be recognized for my efforts through money motivates even the laziest teacher. Don’t you see them at summer workshops in droves or even worse, working as a summer school teacher? ♦ Teachers and faculty benefit from being recognized for their achievements. Thank you for reading my feedback. ♦ Consider having students keep an electronic portfolio of the work they have done during their high school career and present it in an interview before faculty/staff and community members. This provides good experience with interviews, provides and opportunity for reflection concerning personal goals, achievements and areas for growth.
Board Action Plan Feedback IPS John Marshall Community High School (424) Focus Area: Number Six Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. ♦ 11 teachers disagree with merit pay. ♦ 4 teachers gave no comment. ♦ 15 teachers agreed with a fair system.
Board Action Plan Feedback IPS #572 Focus Area: Number Six Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. ô€‚ƒ Plans need to be more specific. ô€‚ƒ This sounds great on paper. However, it wouldn’t be fair to special education teachers. Their students make progress, but they do no make as much progress as a traditional student. If this compensation is only based on test scores, then some teachers who are good at what they do will be left out of the bonus. ô€‚ƒ With this plan we are taking out the love of teaching and making it more of a competition. There are some teachers who would only do it for the money. ô€‚ƒ How about the teachers that don’t use any sick days during the year, get a bonus check at the end. ô€‚ƒ Merit pay. A good idea whose time will NEVER come. ô€‚ƒ I think it is very important for merit pay to recognize different aspects of the jobs. Value added is an important category. I would also like an opportunity for teachers to be able to give input on administrators that they think are outstanding. ô€‚ƒ I agree with the following information. ô€‚ƒ Good luck with that one. ô€‚ƒ No merit or bonus because our product is a child who has too many variables. ô€‚ƒ It would be nice for ALL employees to get bonuses. ô€‚ƒ DIBELS goals will increase student reading levels. ô€‚ƒ Agree. ô€‚ƒ Okay. Union issue. ô€‚ƒ Merit/bonus system – This requires a more detailed plan and is somewhat gray in its areas of criteria. ô€‚ƒ Merit/bonuses prevent “burn out” and/or gives employees a level of self work with their job performance. ô€‚ƒ Merit based incentives for teachers can be effective to raise test scores and increase student achievement. ô€‚ƒ This is so subjective. How can it be implemented fairly? ô€‚ƒ The potential for abuse/mismanagement of merit pay puts our students at risk of mediocre instruction. ô€‚ƒ I’ve worked in a risk and reward environment for many years. In the end, it was all risk, no reward. I’d be a hard sell on a merit-based, bonus-enhanced pay scale. ô€‚ƒ Doesn’t specify how “value added” is assessed – have to be careful with this. I worked at another school that used performance based bonus. Instead of making teacher’s better, many were mad, they shared values, and there was cheating on some assessments by a select few. It sometimes shift focus away from kids and their needs to how much the teachers feel valued as well as a race for the money.
School 60 thinks it's 'pretty controversial'. How's that for straddling the fence? ---
Board Action Plan Feedback IPS #60 Focus Area: Number Six Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. ♦ Merit pay is pretty controversial. How will schools determine such pay when magnet schools have students who usually score better on tests than other schools? Will there be one set of rules for Merit Pay for magnet schools and another set of rules for other schools?
Board Action Plan Feedback EMMERICH MANUAL HIGH SCHOOL Focus Area: Number Six Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance. • I dislike this! It is to my belief that pay should not be connected to student achievement. How can they assume this is done 100% fair without any bias? • How would “merit” and “bonus” plans be determined? I don’t see any way to fairly ascertain who would receive merit/bonus. Perhaps we need a merit/bonus for students who show improvement! • This would never work. There is entirely too much favoritism shown in this building to think that everyone would be evaluated based on performance alone. Too many people here have their own agendas. Too many chiefs. • I think everyone should do their best regardless if they get extra money. Therefore I do not think there should be a need for merit. • My biggest concern for merit pay is that teachers will be unwilling to work and give students a second chance and will instead encourage them to quit! • What about the police regarding merit pay? • Would like to know how non-academic persons would be evaluated. • As long as schools can put students out of a magnet then merit pay will not be equal. As long as people like/dislike each other, merit pay can not be fair. If all the students were honors then some teachers will have better scores. • Cut staff - save money now - spend more money? Who is going to develop bonus plan? • Merit pay must be clearly defined and enforced. The goal of earning extra pay should not be the focus. It should be the by-product of student improvement.
Anyone read the NY Times Magazine Cover story this weekend? You can find it at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Teachers-t.html?ref=magazine
Two prestigious organizations issued a most compelling report on teacher attitudes.
"Primary Sources: America's Teachers on America's Schools" is based on a national survey of more than 40,000 K-12 public school teachers, conducted by Scholastic Inc. and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The landmark study produced findings that confound widespread, perhaps prevailing, characterizations of this segment of Americans. In so doing, it speaks to the motives of a distressingly expedient President Obama and his gung-ho education secretary, Arne Duncan.
Most teachers, according to "Primary Sources":
Value supportive leadership, collaboration and curriculum over higher pay;
are not opposed to standardized tests, though they would add other yardsticks such as work on assignments and class participation;
don't think much of tenure as an indicator of ability;
attend after-school and weekend school events by a large majority and, in the case of elementary teachers, are willing to make house calls for parent conferences.
This is not a portrait of a communion of scholarly saints. It hardly refutes the argument that bad teachers and poorly run schools are out there. What it does say is that professionalism is far from dead in a class of employees who, unlike perhaps any other, can be arbitrarily branded as unanimously incompetent, at least on a workplace-by-workplace level.
Collective punishment, pushed by the same people who oppose collective bargaining. And our own President Obama, elected with the backing of teachers' unions, courts their enemies.
(from Dan Carpenter's op-ed piece in the Indy Star)
I actually read both of the above pieces. While both articles raise valid points, they reach opposite conclusions. I think Lemov is far more qualified to come to his conclusion and has done far more research. Dan Carpenter is just somebody with an opinion like millions of others that could be selected randomly. He doesn't know any more about education than my next door neighbor or the lady at the dry cleaners.
I agree that Carpenter might not be able to discern the difference between a sirloin and a sewer line; however, he simply paraphrased the Scholastic and Gates study.
The bottom line of their study is that teachers respond better to supportive leadership and collaboration than they do to the promise of more money. That is an eye-opener for many outside the public school classroom.
From NPR In 2005, former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch wrote, "We should thank President George W. Bush and Congress for passing the No Child Left Behind Act ... All this attention and focus is paying off for younger students, who are reading and solving mathematics problems better than their parents' generation." Four years later, Ravitch has changed her mind. "I was known as a conservative advocate of many of these policies," Ravitch says. "But I've looked at the evidence and I've concluded they're wrong. They've put us on the wrong track. I feel passionately about the improvement of public education and I don't think any of this is going to improve public education." Ravitch has written a book about what she sees as the failure of No Child Left Behind called The Death and Life of the Great American School System. She says one of her biggest concerns is the way the law requires school districts to use standardized testing. Emphasis On Test Scores Led To Cheating, Dishonesty "The basic strategy is measuring and punishing," Ravitch says of No Child Left Behind. "And it turns out as a result of putting so much emphasis on the test scores, there's a lot of cheating going on, there's a lot of gaming the system. Instead of raising standards it's actually lowered standards because many states have 'dumbed down' their tests or changed the scoring of their tests to say that more kids are passing than actually are." Some states contend that 80 to 90 percent of their children are proficient readers and have math proficiency as well, Ravitch notes. But in the same states, only 25 to 30 of the children test at a proficient level on national tests such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress. "Secretary (of Education Arne) Duncan often says we're lying to our kids," Ravitch says. "And weare lying to our kids." 'There Should Not Be An Education Marketplace' Part of the reason schools were so intent on achieving high tests scores was because they were competing with other schools for resources, which were often doled out on that basis alone. Ravitch is critical of the impact this had on schools. "There should not be an education marketplace, there should not be competition," Ravitch says. "Schools operate fundamentally — or should operate — like families. The fundamental principle by which education proceeds is collaboration. Teachers are supposed to share what works; schools are supposed to get together and talk about what's [been successful] for them. They're not supposed to hide their trade secrets and have a survival of the fittest competition with the school down the block."
"Division heads should not be in control of personnel cuts. We have a system in place that works well and is fair. Seniority does not protect bad teachers. Rather, administrators who do not evaluate and mentor properly do. The PIP process would eliminate low-performing teachers if principals would do their job."
AMEN! Keep saying this. Maybe someone will listen if we just keep saying it.
The old government monopoly "family" of education has had 200 years to work. It never worked. History majors know this. Education majors are lied to. It doesn't matter what Diane Ravitch thinks. The public will never give back school choice. 20 years from now, our public school options will be as varied as our preschool and college options are now. The Horace Mann vision had its moment, but it didn't work. Let's move on.
John Dewey's vision for education has not worked either, and our university schools of education have been teaching his philosophy in various forms for over half a century.
We've now evolved into an educational system that places more emphasis on strategies than on general content. It's now taboo to speak about teaching content or even mention memorization of simple facts.
Did you ever wonder or ponder why Asian students perform so well on tests? Perhaps not, but I have. Despite what our educational gurus of today are loathe to admit, the Asian students spend a large amount of their classroom time on rote memorization of common facts that are requisite foundational facts for their higher education. Of course, their facts might be different from our requisite facts here in the US; but nevertheless, these Asian students are drilled and skilled in basic facts that are common to their cultural literacy.
This was driven home to me a few years ago in a school district far from IPS. The scenario that prompted my epiphany was a grade 10 English class who was reading a Tennessee William's play. Somewhere in that particular play, there was an allusion to one of the main character's having the 'Midas touch'. Sensing a teaching moment from the blank eyes staring at me, I asked "What does it mean to have a 'Midas touch'?"
I was greeted by only one answer from several students who were engaged at the moment. Their collective answer had to do with 'Midas mufflers'. These young folks were clueless. They'd never been exposed even briefly and superficially to the story of King Midas. That's a prime example of cultural illiteracy.
Cultural literacy is not an in-depth knowledge of all great literature, but rather, it's just a superficial, skimming knowledge of King Midas. We don't need or have to go into depth with our students about cultural knowledge; we simply need to expose them to the bare necessities of the great stories.
Without this superficial exposure to great literature (yes, content, yeah yuck, I hear some of you saying) our inner city students are forever relegated to the back of the bus all their lives. So much of reading comprehension depends on an assumption that our students have prior knowledge of commonly known facts that many of our teachers aren't familiar with themselves. This is sad. IPS is a prime example of the 'blind leading the blind'. Of the 'uneducated attempting to educate the uneducated'.
Go ahead. Trash me, bash me, and I'll not care. Our university schools of education have failed our young teachers. There's more to teacher education than a few pedagogy classes.
Finally, someone with some sense. No one says you have to use rote learning 100% of the time, but it really is an effective way to learn basic knowledge. I think that giving so much attention to how kids "feel" about things creates a situation where students can "blame" someone if they don't take responsibility for their own learning, even at a young age.
Way at the beginning of this, someone mentioned the old mallory building, full of furniture. Could someone/anyone fill me in on this? Where is this building? Could I really go in there and get furniture for my classroom? Thanks for any help you can give!
Add me to the list of those who see a place for rote learning. It is not fun. It is not exciting but it stays with you. It was never meant to be a full time teaching technique but sometimes learning is just plain hard work. No fireworks. No whistles. No balloons.
Curious observation. When the posts on this blog concern individual people and things such as 'ruby red slippers', then there are many active posters joining in. On the other hand, when the posts are primarily about 'ideas', then the active posters are missing. Does that tell us anything about the average IPS teacher? It should.
Small people are interested only in talking about other people; whereas, brighter more intelligent people enjoy the discourse of 'ideas'.
This speaks volumns to the IPS dilemma. We have a large group of ignorant, small-minded people teaching our students. Unless the discussion is leaning toward adultery, someone's style of dress, or someone's jealousy of another employee, then the discussion just stops.
Well, allow me to jumpstart a hot discussion of unfounded and 'totally fabricated' ignorant small-minded roasts/rumors for everyone's enjoyment. Li-Yen Johnson paints her toenails a sultry red that drives men crazy. Jackie Greenwood is seeing Al Sharpton on alternate Friday evenings. Mary Louise Bewley and Wolf Blitzer are an item in the Atlanta social scene. Eugene White and Oprah Winfrey are talking. Willie Giles has his eyes on Tina Turner's legs. Jane Kendricks has located Rosie O'Donnell's cell phone number. Prudence Bridgwaters was dissed by Wanda Sykes. Dr. Clency is hot on the trail of Denzel Washington. Larry Yarrell will be appearing on the Jerry Springer Show during our Spring Break. Mary Bush was selected to be on the X-Treme Makeover Show next month. Michael Brown, IPS School Board Chairman, has accepted an invitation from Dr. Phil to discuss the ramifications of enabling one's offspring to be bad and get away with it. Dexter Suggs is the surprised recipient of a hardback copy of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's "How to Win Friends and Influence People". Suggs and Cassandra Shipp will also receive copies of the Glencoe grade 9 Grammar text, complements of the textbook rep. Shipp will also receive one-on-one training with Bill Gates on 'how to use the Microsoft email spellcheck/grammar feature'.
I am inspired about some of the current postings, and I agree that rote learning does have it's place in teaching today. You do need feedback from your students, communication is the center of the learning process.
On cultural literacy, you are right, some of our teachers and many of our kids don't have any cultural literacy. A few years ago I was at an event with three older teachers and a young teacher, the young teacher was trying to do a crossword puzzle, and asked the question "Civil War Scott?", the four of us in unison said "Dred" and then had to explain it to her, how can you make it through U.S. History in high school and not know the Dred Scot decision?
Your observation is so correct. Until HR hires totally and absolutely qualified people for the job posting, then merit pay is useless.
At present, I occasionally wonder that people hired are hired simply because they happen to know someone who knows someone who knows Dr. White. IPS may be a large urban school district; however, its hiring practices operate similar to a small bush league rural southern school district. It seems to be more about who you know than what you know. This is especially prevalent in the hiring practices of classified employees.
I'm an older teacher in IPS. I was fortunate to have had a Liberal Arts major AND an Education major. A dual major, if you will. I've never regretted the Liberal Arts major; it set me aside from the others in the public school systems in which I've worked, and for that, I'm forever thankful.
Daily I work with teachers who lack cultural literacy about their own country. They are familiar with 'drilling down', 'chunking', 'talking to the text', 'marking up the text', graphic organizers, 'making thinking visible', and other trendy strategies; however, they lack content knowledge. They quite simply cannot comprehend the necessity of knowing such simple cultural facts commonly known to educated mankind such as: absolute zero, tempus fugit, the Iliad, alpha and omega, the melancholy Dane, the Ides of March, reason for Van Gogh's missing ear, El Greco, fait accompli, American Gothic, what Ponce de Leon searched for, the Northern Lights, the Bard, etc. These things may seem inconsequential on surface; however, little things make the difference in where you end up in life.
Way back in these posts, someone asked what school had a pilot program for Bonus or Merit pay. The school is John Marshall. All the math and ELA teachers {grades 7 through 10} are on the Merit or Bonus pay track. They interviewed for these jobs last year. I don't know how these jobs were advertised, but they were supposedly.
Someone posted that one of the teachers was a 1st year teacher. That is correct. Not only is this teacher a 1st year teacher but also this teacher is on some sort of alternative certification schedule, maybe a teaching fellow or a Teach for America teacher. This means that this teacher is really not a certified teacher in the area in which they are teaching. They got their bonus anyway. The central office works in mysterious ways.
I've decided that Eugene White's mantra is, "Living well is the best revenge." That's a common mantra in the rural South among those who grew up with little and then later became happy members of the 'nouveau riche'. Nothing is more flamboyant and obnoxious than those with newly acquired riches whether it's in the inner city or in Geist. Old money has class; new money is tasteless.
Speaking of "Out of Pocket"...How's this one for "out of the taxpayer's pocket"?
Eugene White and the school board members use IPS school police as chauffeurs each time any of them are taking a flight or on a return flight. Wouldn't it be nice if none of us needed to pay to park at the airport, pay for a taxi or limo or arrange for a friend to drop us off and pick us up at the airport. Unfortunately IPS does NOT have a royal family and these people need to quit using the IPS school police as their personal chauffeurs.
(Small people are interested only in talking about other people; whereas, brighter more intelligent people enjoy the discourse of 'ideas')
It seems that we finally had a topic with many interesting comments until the person who posted this comment felt compelled to "jumpstart a hot discussion of unfounded and 'totally fabricated' ignorant small-minded roasts/rumors" ....
Sounds like you were one of the people "bored with the discourse of 'ideas'".
Curious observation. When the posts on this blog concern individual people and things such as 'ruby red slippers', then there are many active posters joining in. On the other hand, when the posts are primarily about 'ideas', then the active posters are missing. Does that tell us anything about the average IPS teacher? It should.
Small people are interested only in talking about other people; whereas, brighter more intelligent people enjoy the discourse of 'ideas'.
This speaks volumns to the IPS dilemma. We have a large group of ignorant, small-minded people teaching our students. Unless the discussion is leaning toward adultery, someone's style of dress, or someone's jealousy of another employee, then the discussion just stops.
Strangely you were the only person in this thread to have deviated from the the track of the original thread. Since no one moderates this blog there is a lot of thread drift. So this thread had drifted from out of pocket expenses to merit pay, but no one had mentioned toes, shoes or infidelity until you brought it up.
Back to Merit and/or Bonus pay. Is it true that John Marshall has teachers who are receiving bonuses? I read this in an earlier post above, and I have heard this is true, but I would like to know more.
I'm not an IPS employee, but I've looked all over the Internet for any information on it and can't find a thing. If the John Marshall/merit pay thing is true, it's being kept a secret from the public.
not a rumor but probably a secret...there are 4 math teachers and 4 language arts teachers receiving bonus pay at marshall...total bonus for the year is 5,000...students had pretest at start of semester...students took post test at end of semester...bonus based on test results...tests designed by downtown people...donna walker and theresa morris...all done at directive of li-yen johnson
correct on improvement...outsiders gave both pre and post tests...good idea but disruptive...students had scrimmages and post tests on back to back days...kids are tested out and burned out...one high achieving teacher passed out in class because of exhaustion...too much pressure...high rate of student absences has negative impact on expected improvement...absences are out of teacher control...inclusion teachers feel left out because they teach in these classes but get no bonus for any student improvement...this was not thought out initially...overall a good idea but needs tweaking...
There are nine (9) Master Teachers at Marshall this year. Four in math, four in English, and one in Over/Under Special Education. Dr. Johnson spearheaded this program of Bonus Pay and the participating teachers are called Master Teachers. I am unsure if these positions were advertised on the IPS employment webpage or were available through the grapevine or by word of mouth.
"The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education"
She formerly touted NCLB as the best thing since sliced bread, but after years of not seeing the expected and hoped for results, Ravitch changed her mind. It's always refreshing to read something by a respected writer/researcher who has the courage to admit they were wrong.
The positions at John Marshall were listed on the IPS website (employment openings) last summer before school started and the incentive was written about. It was no big secret but, at the time, it seems that people were hesitant to apply to go there.
1. Student performance 2. Teacher performance 3. Narratives of peer relationships 4. Teacher attendance 5. Teacher professional development 6. Questionnaire on current events and technology proficiency.
This is a big iceberg and not quantifiable with student performance;
I can't help but wonder if the speculation about "dumbing down the tests" happens with merit pay. I wonder what kind of radical shift will need to happen with everyone involved to make it viable. Our test scores are not good, but when I see things like the Harlem Improvement Zone I think there may be some golden nuggets if we just work for change, not against it.
Off the topic, for sure, but this is something I'd like to offer at this point. Take it for whatever it's worth to you.
When top-level school administrators voluntarily take a small salary reduction, it DOES engender trust, build faith, and all those other good PR type things with those employees in the rank and file salary ranges.
Many years ago in another district in another state, I was a young special education teacher fresh out of graduate school with my Master's degree and assigned to teach a class of preschool handicapped students with severe and profound disabilities. This meant that most of the young students were not toilet trained, and, of course, diapering would be a part of our (I mention 'our', because I had a full-time teacher assistant) classroom routine.
My very wise principal, a former special ed teacher, told me on the first day on the job that I should never ask my teacher assistant to do anything that she'd not seen me do first, including changing a really messy diaper. I listened to her recommendation, and I changed that first really messy diaper that appeared in my classroom on the first day of school. I changed that messy, smelly diaper like it was nothing more than wiping up some spilled juice.
Learning that simple lesson of never expecting a person earning far less money to do things that you're not willing to do first and without complaint has been a key to my success. That lesson has served me well for almost 30 years.
Moral of the story: Don't ask folks who earn less money than you to suffer through bad things without first showing some sacrifice on your part. It works every time because it shows respect for the other person, it shows a spirit of equity, and it shows that we're all in it together.
The most effective 'leaders' are 'servant leaders'.
Our Ed Center administrators might wish to revisit that concept of 'servant leadership'. They might be pleasantly surprised to learn that the rank and file IPS employee would go the extra mile and would suffer through the bad financial times without complaint. Modeling works for students; modeling works for adults, also.
As a retired secretary I once had a principal who would fill in no matter the position. I saw her help out with phones, classes, hall duty, you name it. She attended all events at the school. She made her own coffee and cleaned up her own area. She was the last caring, respectful principal with whom I worked. I became so disillusioned with IPS after her left.
Servant leadership is a philosophy and practice of leadership, coined and defined by Robert Greenleaf and supported by many leadership and management writers such as James Autry, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter Block, Peter Senge, Max DePree, Larry Spears, Margaret Wheatley, Jim Hunter, Kent Keith, Ken Jennings and others. Servant-leaders achieve results for their organizations by giving priority attention to the needs of their colleagues and those they serve. Servant-leaders are often seen as humble stewards of their organization's resources (human, financial and physical).
History of Servant Leadership The general concept is ancient. Chanakya wrote, in the 4th century B.C., in his book Arthashastra:
“the king [leader] shall consider as good, not what pleases himself but what pleases his subjects [followers]” “the king [leader] is a paid servant and enjoys the resources of the state together with the people.”
There are passages that relate to servant leadership in the Tao Te Ching, attributed to Lao-Tzu, who is believed to have lived in China sometime between 570 B.C. and 490 B.C.:
The highest type of ruler is one of whose existence the people are barely aware. Next comes one whom they love and praise. Next comes one whom they fear. Next comes one whom they despise and defy. When you are lacking in faith, others will be unfaithful to you. The Sage is self-effacing and scanty of words. When his task is accomplished and things have been completed, all the people say, ‘We ourselves have achieved it!’
Jesus urged his followers to be servants first. He told his followers:
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28; also Mark 10:42-45)
Jesus also washed the feet of his disciples, as an example of the way in which they were to serve each other. (John 13: 12-15)
Robert Greenleaf , in his classic essay, The Servant as Leader, described the servant-leader in this manner:
The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.
The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?
Precisely. The man now walks among us here in IPS. He was hired by IPS after his documented shenanigans in Kansas City. What was the School Board thinking?
I use the full $250 every year for classroom supplies, software, books, etc. and deduct it from my taxes. Depending on the semester (what IPS is providing and what students are needing), sometimes it's for the basics, sometimes for extras. I've gone over a couple of years, purchasing "bigger" items, but I don't want to specify what I purchased because it will make me identifiable to those who work at my school.
ReplyDeleteI am spending more on buying clothing items for students who are not in compliance with this inane dress code of IPS.
ReplyDeleteTo the above posters, I have done both! I use the $250 on my taxes and try to do at least one of the teacher reimbursements. I don't even keep track of the money I spend on shirts, belts, etc. because I get them from Dollar General who has a nice assortment of uniform shirts cheap. The last couple of items I have tried to have funded by DonorsChoose only to have my request go unfunded. I calaculate I totally spend about $800 for things like transparency paper,folders, pens, pencils, chart paper,composition books, poster boards, enlargements, etc.
ReplyDeleteSchool 15 is crazy when it comes to copy paper, copiers, and # of copies. First of all, the secretary is only allowed to fill the copiers once a day with paper. Second, we are limited to only 600 copies per month. If you are one of the unfortunate ones to have an afternoon prep, you'll never find paper in the copiers because it's all been used up. Finally, we only have 2 working copiers in the building and recently our access to the library copiers was taken away. I spend my own money to buy cases of paper and I don't know how much longer I can afford to keep doing that.
ReplyDeleteOn top of that, each grade level and department was given a small amount of funds with which to buy whatever supplies for the next school year. The money wasn't even equally distributed. Kindergarten with their 5 classes received $250 and 6th grade with their 2 classes received $250 as well. Ridiculous. The principal has said that now that we have these funds, he will no longer be providing copy paper into the copiers. So...the supplies bought with this money must last us until January of 2011. Good luck to the poor teachers at 15.
I end up buying all sorts of things: markers, copy paper, 3 x 5 cards, folders, etc. You name it, I buy it. I have had some luck with Donors Choose...be sure to see how one's that get chosen are written (that's what I did and after my third try I finally got funded). Too bad the district isn't more proactive about how the money gets spent.
ReplyDeleteBe sure to use Teachers' Treasures....it is great! and well worth the small sign-up fee.
ReplyDeletePrinter Ink! Why the school does not copy important things rather than send it in e-mail is beyond me. I print messages, directives, and other times regularly.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to printing kids grade reports and my own worksheets that go with the curriculum. Our district did not by the boxes as they have in the past with this information. Leaving us to print them ourselves.
MAPS- Wish the district/schools would proved up to date pull down maps like we had when growing up over various times. In addition to run off outline maps that can be easily copied. So that kids understand and ID places we are covering in our curriculum.
I think I know the answer to this question,but,
ReplyDeleteplease tell me why there is so much copying going on in the schools? Please don't take this as a smart alec question.
Thanks
Well in elementary schools, you have weekly progress reports, homework (you can't trust students to take books home....they won't come back!!!!), morning work assignments, supplemental materials, intervention items, etc. Just what I came up with off the top of my head.
ReplyDeleteI think we also need to learn some paper-saving habits...I can usually find enough paper in the recycle bin to copy things on the reverse side of..I can't believe how much is thrown away...
ReplyDeleteNo it is not a smart alec question, my daughter's school in Hendricks county (guess which town) has several handouts per day. It is part of the educational curriculum. I see it daily in her homework sheets which I go over and correct. Between the math sheets, the night writes, and the timed readings that we do on a weekly basis, by the end of the year it is a big stack of hanouts. It is part of the educational process. Face it, Gutenberg (sp?) changed the world, Xerox just made it go faster!
ReplyDeleteTo the person complaining about a lack of maps, you clearly don't use the resources available to you. I have three different pull down maps as well as a huge wall map I inherited from a former IPS teacher. Infact, I don't even have space to mount one of the drag down maps. How did I get so many? Treasures. I don't know if they still have them, but for several months they had a HUGE stack of all kinds of different pull down maps. For your cheap up front fee (35 I think) that map alone is worth around 1000.
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty SAD that I have to come out of pocket for boxes of tissues, pencils, and cleaning supplies for my classroom. I thought that the principal was suppose to order the necessary supplies for their buildings. Somebody is not doing their job!
ReplyDeleteI use the $250 too, probably a little more. I have never bought uniform clothing though. They have some stuff at the office, but I don't care enough about the uniform policy to spend much energy enforcing it, let alone financially supporting it, lol.
ReplyDeleteI spend more money each year, just so that my studets have the same materials as the township schools. I purchase clothes, underwear, shoes, and just made a huge purchase at Dollor Tree on gloves for next year. I was was even in on the purchase for a prom dress, job interview suits, and the correct size bra for a young student (thanks to my fellow female teachers for handling this one). I purchase my own cleaning supplies, and keep my room safe condition.
ReplyDeleteConsumables will always be a problem but for other items such as shelves, cabinets or other furniture, everyone needs to remember the old mallory supply building. There are acres of old furniture just being wasted sitting there. Some of it is junk, but much of it could be cleaned up and reused. If people went in and asked nicely, I see no reason they wouldn't be allowed to look around.
ReplyDeleteQuite a week it was for America's public schools and their teachers, in terms of attention in high places and highs and lows of esteem.
ReplyDeleteFor a man who courted teachers and teacher unions to get their votes for his election, Obama has turned on us. He doesn't think beyond the end of his nose.
On Monday, a few days before Indiana learned it had lost out in the "Race to the Top" derby, President Barack Obama hailed the mass firing of a high school faculty (since reinstated) in Rhode Island and proposed still another program to reward punishers of schools.
Obama is just like our IPS administrators; he's into punishing teachers and making them the blame for all that's wrong in our public schools. He is catering to America's need for a 'villain' and why not pick on teachers; everyone else is. He's demonizing us and not one of us is aware that he used us to get elected and then turned on us, just like a snake.
You can't blame Obama on Indiana not getting Race to the Top money. That fault lies with many Indiana school corporations who were in denial and did not wish to participate in that program. All of our surrounding states received it but then their schools systems participated. Where is our state school leadership? Tony Bennett is too busy bashing teachers.
ReplyDeleteTony Bennett, Obama, anyone and everyone are bashing all teachers presently. It's popular in bad times to have a villain, a demon on which to point fingers and cast blame. It crosses party lines -- this bashing and this demonizing.
ReplyDeleteAs far as other states winning anything, the 16 states recently named are only 'finalists', not winners. And since when do we allow education to become a part of competition, races, games, etc.? This "Race to the Top" is disgusting to many because it's nothing more than a political game with schools and teachers being used as political pawns.
Considering the heavy-handed federal intrusion in education represented by Race to the Top, be thankful Indiana was not a finalist.
ReplyDeleteTalk about a slap to the faces of all the teachers who supported him...
ReplyDeleteOn Monday, a few days before Indiana learned it had lost out in the "Race to the Top" derby, President Barack Obama hailed the mass firing of an entire high school faculty in Rhode Island and proposed still another program to reward punishers of schools. He ain't our friend, like we thought. Personally, I'm really disappointed.
At least when you're dealing with a Tony Bennett type you know you're dealing with the bad guy, the man in the black hat. You can be ready for him because you know what to expect in advance. On the other hand, Obama came into office as the good guy, the man wearing the white hat. We were not prepared for him to turn on us. That's a really big disappointment to a lot of people.
Do you really think these changes demonize teachers? Because i feel the opposite, that it's finally being recognized what a real profession teaching is and how very valuable good teachers really are. Ten years ago, they treated us like pieces in an assembly line. Like all of us were exactly the same and if everyone did the same thing, we would get the same result. Now they're talking about merit pay and trying to find ways to recruit the best teachers. Researchers are locating great teachers and actually asking them what they are doing differently? While some of the details of reforms are irritating, I think it really puts a spotlight on educators as important to the future of this country. I guess giving a profession credit for success will automatically cast blame on lack of success, but to me, the credit is the important part. Teachers are finally being given credit for their results. It's a long time coming, and I think it will have an amazing positive impact on the future of public education.
ReplyDelete@Considering the heavy-handed federal intrusion in education represented by Race to the Top, be thankful Indiana was not a finalist.
ReplyDeleteI agree. A few smart states opted not to participate in this silly game, race, competition. Anytime the federal government 'gives' you money, be aware there will be strings attached. You become the puppet, and the feds will pull your strings forever and you will dance to their tune whether you wish or not.
I deal with IPS data surrounding assessment results from Scrimmages, Benchmarks, ISTEP, etc. I am privy to scores from countless schools. One particular school is a pilot school this year for Bonus or Merit Pay for a few teachers who elected to participate.
ReplyDeleteLo and behold, when the first Bonus checks were awarded, ALL the participating teachers received their bonuses. Yet, some of the teachers did not meet the prerequisites which were vaguely set out from the get-go. It is a sham at this point. The Ed Center administration wants to prove that Bonus Pay works so they decided to give all the participating teachers the mid-year bonus. Now, the Ed Center can say, at least on paper, that Bonus Pay works! It might work, but only if the guidelines are well developed and then followed.
What is the name of the pilot school? What were the prerequisites vaguely set that some of the teachers did not meet? Surely you understand that anyone can post made-up nonsense on this blog (and often do) so you might provide enough information for the reader to verify your accusations (which, to be frank, sound fabricated.)
ReplyDelete@Do you really think these changes demonize teachers?
ReplyDeleteChanges are not demonizing teachers, but attitudes of society are.
When the President of the US brags about the wholesale firing of an entire high school faculty in Rhode Island, I'd say that's demonizing teachers in general. For sure, there had to be some good teachers in that RI high school, don't you imagine? Surely, not all the teachers fired were incompetent, were they? No.
Obama's hailing this wholesale firing of an entire faculty only adds fuel to the fire that keeps our current society believing that teachers are the blame for all the ills in our culture. To the average Joe on the street, this bit of bragging by Obama just reinforced what old Joe always suspected -- that teachers do nothing, have all summer off, are lazy, etc. Yes, Obama legitimized the current demonizing of teachers.
If you check, you will find that only one IPS school was chosen by Dr. Johnson to pilot the Bonus Pay initiative. IPS data is available to many people who handle it during the various stages from assessment day to its return to the teachers.
ReplyDeleteYou're saying that a merit pay pilot school was set up with volunteer teachers and they didn't do better than other schools? That's idiotic. Of course they would do better. Do you think if someone offered money to recruit the best chefs, that you would get better roasted chicken than what you would get in a standard restaurant? Don't you think salesmen who competed for a bonus would do better than salesmen who wouldn't even enter the competition? Unless I'm misunderstanding your post, your post doesn't even make sense. Of course only the best teachers would volunteer for merit-pay programs, and of course they would do better than not-the-best teachers who would refuse to participate in such a program.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Rhode Island, it had continuously ranked in the bottom 5% of the state, so it had to transform, or be taken over. The union refused to agree to the transformation plan, so they fired all the teachers and then will hire some of them back. This was the only way they could do it legally due to the union. I completely agree with this decision, and I hope they do the same thing in IPS. I would get my job back. Would you?
ReplyDelete@Would you?
ReplyDeleteYes. A good command of written English secures both our jobs, don't you agree?
Bonus Pay teachers are called Master Teachers. One of the Master Teachers was unaware they were a Master Teacher. This teacher is a Fellow, a first year teacher, did not interview to be a Master Teacher, and had no idea of the elevated status until late in the first semester. Yes, this person received the mid-year bonus.
ReplyDeleteBusy checking out the above? Thought so. It is true.
ReplyDeleteThe Ed Center can fool some of the people some of the time. It can fool some of the people all the time; however, it can't fool all the people all the time.
ReplyDeleteThoughts from some schools about Bonus/Merit Pay --
ReplyDeleteBoard Action Plan Feedback
IPS #74
Focus Area: Number Six
Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
Pg# 32-33
Merit Pay
If this is thought out carefully. This can be very beneficial to teachers and the district as a whole. However, the concern is that there will be certain schools where teachers will always receive Merit Pay, and some schools that would never receive it. For example, Magnet Schools have different demographics and major differences in the amount of resources and parent support. This can be looked at as an unfair advantage compared to teachers that are in boundary schools where there are issues with attendance, parent support and resources that are at some boundary schools.
There are factors that are out of the teachers’ control that does not make this a fair way to determine teacher pay.
Pg. 32 Bonus pay should be considered to recruit and retain teachers in high demand areas like speech therapy, school psychology, special education, math, science. How would non classroom teachers meet standards for bonus/merit pay because they may not be providing direct instruction that can be measured by student test scores/benchmarks?
Pg. 32 All of these merit or bonus…(nor will it take away from base pay)
Pg. 33 Good idea, but now can this be applied to Special Ed, Related Arts, Title, ESL, etc.
There needs to be clear & concise objectives & standards identified for these areas for their merit/bonus pay.
More thoughts about Bonus pay from IPS schools --
ReplyDeleteBoard Action Plan Feedback
IPS #103
Focus Area: Number Six
Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
♦ Concern about fairness for teachers who do not have GT kids or for those classes that are just low in general. How will criteria be documented for bonus/merit pay? If your principal likes you, then you will score higher and probably get a bonus pay.
Thoughts about Bonus/Merit pay from KLC ----
ReplyDeleteBoard Action Plan Feedback
IPS Center for Inquiry
Focus Area: Number Six
Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
♦ Merit pay is always a concern – lends to being subjective. I don’t know if there is an easy way to determine fair merit pay.
♦ There must be accountability across the board so we have teachers, parents, administrators and students who all believe that ALL children can and have the right to learn. I see words on the plan but no accountability to parent programs being implemented or varying mentorship opportunities.
♦ Merit Pay/Bonus Pay could definitely present a problem among teachers. Some teachers will become so competitive they will focus on the increase pay and not the students and some may even resort to cheating to make sure they get the bonus pay. I know most teachers would not do this, but as we all know and have seen/heard in the news, there are some teachers that will be that driven to be recognized and compensated by any means necessary, especially with the pressures from the district. I think a better solution would be extra pay for extra work not necessarily tied to student ISTEP scores etc. I do believe that teachers who are burning the candle on both ends should receive compensation for all the extra hard work to improve their practice and work on student improvement.
♦ The “value-added” bonus seems to me that it could become subjective even though it is intended to be objective. Some teachers may never be considered because only the “favorites” might get that compensation. I can also see that teachers in areas such as special education will not want to teach the learner who is at capacity due to a disability. What about that teacher, how will that teacher be eligible for merit/bonus especially if it is based on ISTEP scores? Also, there are many students who do not test well on standardized test since they are culturally biased but they are achieving and performing in their academies, how will that be taken into account for merit? What about the special area teachers, how will they receive merit/bonus pay? It seems to me that merit/bonus pay would cause lots of problems in the teaching staff.
♦ I forgot one more item regarding the merit/bonus pay: how will we evaluate the teacher who helps students be more principled and learn social skills, communication skills, time management and organization skills? These items may not be evaluated and recognized on ISTEP scores.
♦ How about staff who are in special areas?
♦ Why don’t teachers use peer evaluations in addition to test scores?
Board Action Plan Feedback
IPS Center for Inquiry
♦ Is this based on test results? How are teachers in special areas recognized since tests are not involved in their jobs?
One school minces few words --
ReplyDeleteBoard Action Plan Feedback
IPS #31/32
Focus Area: Number Six
Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
• Merit and bonus pay----no way!!
• Division heads should not be in control of personnel cuts. We have a system in place that works well and is fair. Seniority does not protect bad teachers. Rather, administrators who do not evaluate and mentor properly do. The PIP process would eliminate low-performing teachers if principals would do their job.
Thoughts from another school ----
ReplyDeleteBoard Action Plan Feedback
IPS Cold Spring School
Focus Area: Number Six
Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
♦ Good idea – I think that the entire idea of a merit system needs to be transparent and have involvement at multiple levels – can’t just be district personnel that have been out of the classroom for a decade evaluating people
♦ This will create competition among teachers. I feel that many teachers will begin to lose integrity. Teachers would be less likely to share ideas with others.
♦ I don’t think there is an accurate way to evaluate that. I also believe that you will have teachers in competition instead of putting students first. You will also have teachers not being honest with their test results.
♦ How do we monitor teachers to be sure they are not cheating to make their classes look better?
♦ Merit pay and Bonus pay will increase competition, decrease trust among colleagues, destroy teacher collaboration and take the humanity out of teaching. I don’t know any teacher that wants Merit Pay. Teachers deal with humans, not machines. That’s why the factory model of education does not work with children.
Board Action Plan Feedback
ReplyDeleteIPS #616 and #687
Focus Area: Number Six
Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
Many ideas were exchanged as follows about merit pay:
- Do not feel merit pay can be based on subject(s) only or your particular student outcomes for many reasons: (Sp. Ed. Issues, how do you include P.E., art, music, title) Math and E/LA teachers are unfairly targeted
Looking at levels of Merit:
Professional: - District already pays according to level of education
-Pay teachers to attend professional development related to instructional strategies specific to IPS student needs (and provide the training free)
-Pay teachers for afterschool committee work related to School Improvement/Student achievement (also, team meetings, staff meetings, CPG groups, expectations of achievement and participation in these groups)
Performance: If based on student outcomes (ISTEP achievement, predicators, High School Testing) , merit pay could be a % to the entire team (all subjects – including administration- ex. 1% bonus pay for a 10% increase or a set bonus of a $$$ amt. to all teachers and administration.
If a merit pay is selected, then teachers would have input into scheduling of classes – a team decision for each level (elementary, MS, and HS) Scheduling is part of instruction and success
Board Action Plan Feedback
ReplyDeleteIPS #58
Focus Area: Number Six
Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
• Concern about merit or bonus pay due to the performance of the special education students being held to the same standards.
• How would achievement of district employees be tracked?
Alternative school thoughts --
ReplyDeleteBoard Action Plan Feedback
IPS Alternative Education and Options
Focus Area: Number Six
Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
♦ This has long been a controversial topic. Offering bonuses is a good idea. Most occupations that provide incentive bonuses are based on something measurable that reflects a job well done – such as sales volume or number of good secret shopper evaluations. When you are dealing with teachers, it is a little harder to identify a way of judging when someone should get a bonus. People have mentioned student test scores, parental observations, and administrator observations. It all comes down to the opinion of one person on the good qualities of another. If there was some way to fairly rate a teacher in order to give the bonus, this would be an excellent idea.
♦ Merit and bonus pay will never be fair if it is based on student performance. It seems to reason that only teachers with high performing students would benefit from this type of program.
♦ If merit and bonus pay should be instituted, it should be both teachers and administrators to decide the criteria.
♦ My concerns are: ~ What does everyone consider effective performance? ~ What will be the criteria? ~ Who will pay for the bonus since the district is facing an insurmountable budget cut?
♦ Question: Are we talking about building level administrators? If Mr. Knazze was paid $1,000 for every student that he has made a difference for, the merit/bonus plan would quickly evaporate. While the concept is good, I don’t see it being administered fairly.
♦ Great idea! These are truly the individuals that are the nuts and bolts of our school district.
♦ Include a variety of “success factors” in determining merit pay, to include the programs that are designed to affect student behavior, attendance, as well as academics through acceleration.
It's good and very interesting to read some thoughts from different IPS schools about Bonus or Merit pay. Apparently not too many are in favor of Merit Pay for valid reasons. These thoughts are responses from the Superintendent's Action Plan as of 12/9/09. Will he take into account the thoughts of the schools or not?
ReplyDeleteMost places that are using merit pay are basing it on student improvement, not overall test scores. Why does nobody in these feedback plans address this. Who is giving the feedback? Are they informed about how merit pay actually works? I don't know about you all, but I have the toughest problem getting a year's achievement with the kids who are ahead. Because if I have a kid who is already two grades above grade level, it's tough to advance him up a year while keeping his teaching material age appropriate. I find it much easier to bring a child who is two years behind up to where he is only one year behind. I also have no knowledge of any merit pay pilot program. Did they base it on student improvement or overall student achievement? If they did it on the latter, they were intentionally setting it up to fail.
ReplyDeleteThe feedback is from teachers all at IPS schools. It was gathered in early December, 2009. Teachers were requested to complete the Superintendent's Action Plan Feedback Form, submit them to their building principal who, in turn, compiled the results and forwarded them to the Superintendent.
ReplyDeleteHere's feedback form from Harshman. I suspect the principal wrote it to look good in the Superintendent's eyes. ---
ReplyDeleteBoard Action Plan Feedback
HARSHMAN MIDDLE SCHOOL
Focus Area: Number Six
Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
“Merit based pay sounds AWESOME!”
From Shortridge ---
ReplyDeleteBoard Action Plan Feedback
Shortridge Magnet High School
Focus Area: Number Six
Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
• How do we make these positions fair and equitable in terms of applying for or receiving when considered support and not direct teacher?
• Mentor bonus or Merit bonus?
I don't work in IPS, I teach at an inner city charter school with a merit bonus system. The fact that these are teachers giving the feedback is troubling. Many obviously have no desire to understand how merit pay works and are threatened by the mere concept. Most people appreciate ways to be recognized for their skills.
ReplyDeleteAs an IPS educator, I can assure the above poster that at no time has anyone from HR or the Ed Center met with teachers to explain Merit/Bonus Pay nor have we received any written documentation from the Ed Center administrators how they envision the Bonus/Merit pay piece to work out. We simply were shown a PowerPoint at each school showing the Action Plan for the district. It was merely a list of the plans with no explanation or definitions provided.
ReplyDeleteFrom Northwest High School -----
ReplyDeleteBoard Action Plan Feedback
Northwest High School
Focus Area: Number Six
Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
In order for the district to implement a merit plan for teachers, the teachers must have the opportunity to add suggestions to the plan. The question must be asked, “How is the plan determined and will it be accurately implemented?” If the merit plan is determined by testing, the students must be tested at an appropriate level and the test must be accurate.
How will this be measured fairly?
Merit and bonuses sound good, but safeguards will need to ensure fairness. When this was done, it became subjective. More guidelines.
Best done outside of school with evaluations and decided by district.
Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
I am definitely against the merit system for teachers. How can this be fair? Each teacher cannot be guaranteed students with the exact same strengths and weaknesses. I have heard that states that have gone to merit pay have stopped because of the massive cheating among teachers. The students are the ones who should be working for merit grades or rewards. Student achievement belongs with the students and should not be the responsibility of the teacher.
NO merit pay idea!!!! Teachers in certain schools will receive disproportionate amounts of money.
The most honest feedback yet. . . from Arlington CHS ---
ReplyDeleteBoard Action Plan Feedback
IPS Arlington Community High School
Focus Area: Number Six
Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
♦ Teacher bonus and merit pay is the way. I need more money! To be recognized for my efforts through money motivates even the laziest teacher. Don’t you see them at summer workshops in droves or even worse, working as a summer school teacher?
♦ Teachers and faculty benefit from being recognized for their achievements. Thank you for reading my feedback.
♦ Consider having students keep an electronic portfolio of the work they have done during their high school career and present it in an interview before faculty/staff and community members. This provides good experience with interviews, provides and opportunity for reflection concerning personal goals, achievements and areas for growth.
Board Action Plan Feedback
ReplyDeleteIPS John Marshall Community High School (424)
Focus Area: Number Six
Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
♦ 11 teachers disagree with merit pay.
♦ 4 teachers gave no comment.
♦ 15 teachers agreed with a fair system.
From school 572 ---
ReplyDeleteBoard Action Plan Feedback
IPS #572
Focus Area: Number Six
Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
􀂃 Plans need to be more specific.
ô€‚ƒ This sounds great on paper. However, it wouldn’t be fair to special education teachers. Their students make progress, but they do no make as much progress as a traditional student. If this compensation is only based on test scores, then some teachers who are good at what they do will be left out of the bonus.
􀂃 With this plan we are taking out the love of teaching and making it more of a competition. There are some teachers who would only do it for the money.
ô€‚ƒ How about the teachers that don’t use any sick days during the year, get a bonus check at the end.
􀂃 Merit pay. A good idea whose time will NEVER come.
􀂃 I think it is very important for merit pay to recognize different aspects of the jobs. Value added is an important category. I would also like an opportunity for teachers to be able to give input on administrators that they think are outstanding.
􀂃 I agree with the following information.
􀂃 Good luck with that one.
􀂃 No merit or bonus because our product is a child who has too many variables.
􀂃 It would be nice for ALL employees to get bonuses.
􀂃 DIBELS goals will increase student reading levels.
􀂃 Agree.
􀂃 Okay. Union issue.
ô€‚ƒ Merit/bonus system – This requires a more detailed plan and is somewhat gray in its areas of criteria.
ô€‚ƒ Merit/bonuses prevent “burn out” and/or gives employees a level of self work with their job performance.
􀂃 Merit based incentives for teachers can be effective to raise test scores and increase student achievement.
􀂃 This is so subjective. How can it be implemented fairly?
􀂃 The potential for abuse/mismanagement of merit pay puts our students at risk of mediocre instruction.
ô€‚ƒ I’ve worked in a risk and reward environment for many years. In the end, it was all risk, no reward. I’d be a hard sell on a merit-based, bonus-enhanced pay scale.
ô€‚ƒ Doesn’t specify how “value added” is assessed – have to be careful with this. I worked at another school that used performance based bonus. Instead of making teacher’s better, many were mad, they shared values, and there was cheating on some assessments by a select few. It sometimes shift focus away from kids and their needs to how much the teachers feel valued as well as a race for the money.
School 60 thinks it's 'pretty controversial'. How's that for straddling the fence? ---
ReplyDeleteBoard Action Plan Feedback
IPS #60
Focus Area: Number Six
Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
♦ Merit pay is pretty controversial. How will schools determine such pay when magnet schools have students who usually score better on tests than other schools? Will there be one set of rules for Merit Pay for magnet schools and another set of rules for other schools?
Which IPS school is doing a pilot program for Bonus pay?
ReplyDeleteMore feedback from Manual high school ---
ReplyDeleteBoard Action Plan Feedback
EMMERICH MANUAL HIGH SCHOOL
Focus Area: Number Six
Goal: Create a system of merit and bonus for faculty and staff to increase compensation and improve effective performance.
• I dislike this! It is to my belief that pay should not be connected to student achievement. How can they assume this is done 100% fair without any bias?
• How would “merit” and “bonus” plans be determined? I don’t see any way to fairly ascertain who would receive merit/bonus. Perhaps we need a merit/bonus for students who show improvement!
• This would never work. There is entirely too much favoritism shown in this building to think that everyone would be evaluated based on performance alone. Too many people here have their own agendas. Too many chiefs.
• I think everyone should do their best regardless if they get extra money. Therefore I do not think there should be a need for merit.
• My biggest concern for merit pay is that teachers will be unwilling to work and give students a second chance and will instead encourage them to quit!
• What about the police regarding merit pay?
• Would like to know how non-academic persons would be evaluated.
• As long as schools can put students out of a magnet then merit pay will not be equal. As long as people like/dislike each other, merit pay can not be fair. If all the students were honors then some teachers will have better scores.
• Cut staff - save money now - spend more money? Who is going to develop bonus plan?
• Merit pay must be clearly defined and enforced. The goal of earning extra pay should not be the focus. It should be the by-product of student improvement.
Anyone read the NY Times Magazine Cover story this weekend? You can find it at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Teachers-t.html?ref=magazine
ReplyDeleteInteresting stuff...
Two prestigious organizations issued a most compelling report on teacher attitudes.
ReplyDelete"Primary Sources: America's Teachers on America's Schools" is based on a national survey of more than 40,000 K-12 public school teachers, conducted by Scholastic Inc. and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The landmark study produced findings that confound widespread, perhaps prevailing, characterizations of this segment of Americans. In so doing, it speaks to the motives of a distressingly expedient President Obama and his gung-ho education secretary, Arne Duncan.
Most teachers, according to "Primary Sources":
Value supportive leadership, collaboration and curriculum over higher pay;
are not opposed to standardized tests, though they would add other yardsticks such as work on assignments and class participation;
don't think much of tenure as an indicator of ability;
attend after-school and weekend school events by a large majority and, in the case of elementary teachers, are willing to make house calls for parent conferences.
This is not a portrait of a communion of scholarly saints. It hardly refutes the argument that bad teachers and poorly run schools are out there. What it does say is that professionalism is far from dead in a class of employees who, unlike perhaps any other, can be arbitrarily branded as unanimously incompetent, at least on a workplace-by-workplace level.
Collective punishment, pushed by the same people who oppose collective bargaining. And our own President Obama, elected with the backing of teachers' unions, courts their enemies.
(from Dan Carpenter's op-ed piece in the Indy Star)
I actually read both of the above pieces. While both articles raise valid points, they reach opposite conclusions. I think Lemov is far more qualified to come to his conclusion and has done far more research. Dan Carpenter is just somebody with an opinion like millions of others that could be selected randomly. He doesn't know any more about education than my next door neighbor or the lady at the dry cleaners.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Carpenter might not be able to discern the difference between a sirloin and a sewer line; however, he simply paraphrased the Scholastic and Gates study.
ReplyDeleteThe bottom line of their study is that teachers respond better to supportive leadership and collaboration than they do to the promise of more money. That is an eye-opener for many outside the public school classroom.
From NPR
ReplyDeleteIn 2005, former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch wrote, "We should thank President George W. Bush and Congress for passing the No Child Left Behind Act ... All this attention and focus is paying off for younger students, who are reading and solving mathematics problems better than their parents' generation."
Four years later, Ravitch has changed her mind.
"I was known as a conservative advocate of many of these policies," Ravitch says. "But I've looked at the evidence and I've concluded they're wrong. They've put us on the wrong track. I feel passionately about the improvement of public education and I don't think any of this is going to improve public education."
Ravitch has written a book about what she sees as the failure of No Child Left Behind called The Death and Life of the Great American School System. She says one of her biggest concerns is the way the law requires school districts to use standardized testing.
Emphasis On Test Scores Led To Cheating, Dishonesty
"The basic strategy is measuring and punishing," Ravitch says of No Child Left Behind. "And it turns out as a result of putting so much emphasis on the test scores, there's a lot of cheating going on, there's a lot of gaming the system. Instead of raising standards it's actually lowered standards because many states have 'dumbed down' their tests or changed the scoring of their tests to say that more kids are passing than actually are."
Some states contend that 80 to 90 percent of their children are proficient readers and have math proficiency as well, Ravitch notes. But in the same states, only 25 to 30 of the children test at a proficient level on national tests such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
"Secretary (of Education Arne) Duncan often says we're lying to our kids," Ravitch says. "And weare lying to our kids."
'There Should Not Be An Education Marketplace'
Part of the reason schools were so intent on achieving high tests scores was because they were competing with other schools for resources, which were often doled out on that basis alone.
Ravitch is critical of the impact this had on schools.
"There should not be an education marketplace, there should not be competition," Ravitch says. "Schools operate fundamentally — or should operate — like families. The fundamental principle by which education proceeds is collaboration. Teachers are supposed to share what works; schools are supposed to get together and talk about what's [been successful] for them. They're not supposed to hide their trade secrets and have a survival of the fittest competition with the school down the block."
"Division heads should not be in control of personnel cuts. We have a system in place that works well and is fair. Seniority does not protect bad teachers. Rather, administrators who do not evaluate and mentor properly do. The PIP process would eliminate low-performing teachers if principals would do their job."
ReplyDeleteAMEN! Keep saying this. Maybe someone will listen if we just keep saying it.
Eugene White thought Diane Ravitch was wonderful until she changed her mind. He doesn't even mention her name now.
ReplyDeleteThe old government monopoly "family" of education has had 200 years to work. It never worked. History majors know this. Education majors are lied to. It doesn't matter what Diane Ravitch thinks. The public will never give back school choice. 20 years from now, our public school options will be as varied as our preschool and college options are now. The Horace Mann vision had its moment, but it didn't work. Let's move on.
ReplyDeleteJohn Dewey's vision for education has not worked either, and our university schools of education have been teaching his philosophy in various forms for over half a century.
ReplyDeleteWe've now evolved into an educational system that places more emphasis on strategies than on general content. It's now taboo to speak about teaching content or even mention memorization of simple facts.
Did you ever wonder or ponder why Asian students perform so well on tests? Perhaps not, but I have. Despite what our educational gurus of today are loathe to admit, the Asian students spend a large amount of their classroom time on rote memorization of common facts that are requisite foundational facts for their higher education. Of course, their facts might be different from our requisite facts here in the US; but nevertheless, these Asian students are drilled and skilled in basic facts that are common to their cultural literacy.
This was driven home to me a few years ago in a school district far from IPS. The scenario that prompted my epiphany was a grade 10 English class who was reading a Tennessee William's play. Somewhere in that particular play, there was an allusion to one of the main character's having the 'Midas touch'. Sensing a teaching moment from the blank eyes staring at me, I asked "What does it mean to have a 'Midas touch'?"
I was greeted by only one answer from several students who were engaged at the moment. Their collective answer had to do with 'Midas mufflers'. These young folks were clueless. They'd never been exposed even briefly and superficially to the story of King Midas. That's a prime example of cultural illiteracy.
Cultural literacy is not an in-depth knowledge of all great literature, but rather, it's just a superficial, skimming knowledge of King Midas. We don't need or have to go into depth with our students about cultural knowledge; we simply need to expose them to the bare necessities of the great stories.
Without this superficial exposure to great literature (yes, content, yeah yuck, I hear some of you saying) our inner city students are forever relegated to the back of the bus all their lives. So much of reading comprehension depends on an assumption that our students have prior knowledge of commonly known facts that many of our teachers aren't familiar with themselves. This is sad. IPS is a prime example of the 'blind leading the blind'. Of the 'uneducated attempting to educate the uneducated'.
Go ahead. Trash me, bash me, and I'll not care. Our university schools of education have failed our young teachers. There's more to teacher education than a few pedagogy classes.
Finally, someone with some sense. No one says you have to use rote learning 100% of the time, but it really is an effective way to learn basic knowledge. I think that giving so much attention to how kids "feel" about things creates a situation where students can "blame" someone if they don't take responsibility for their own learning, even at a young age.
ReplyDeleteWay at the beginning of this, someone mentioned the old mallory building, full of furniture. Could someone/anyone fill me in on this? Where is this building? Could I really go in there and get furniture for my classroom? Thanks for any help you can give!
ReplyDeleteAdd me to the list of those who see a place for rote learning. It is not fun. It is not exciting but it stays with you. It was never meant to be a full time teaching technique but sometimes learning is just plain hard work. No fireworks. No whistles. No balloons.
ReplyDeleteCurious observation. When the posts on this blog concern individual people and things such as 'ruby red slippers', then there are many active posters joining in. On the other hand, when the posts are primarily about 'ideas', then the active posters are missing. Does that tell us anything about the average IPS teacher? It should.
ReplyDeleteSmall people are interested only in talking about other people; whereas, brighter more intelligent people enjoy the discourse of 'ideas'.
This speaks volumns to the IPS dilemma. We have a large group of ignorant, small-minded people teaching our students. Unless the discussion is leaning toward adultery, someone's style of dress, or someone's jealousy of another employee, then the discussion just stops.
Well, allow me to jumpstart a hot discussion of unfounded and 'totally fabricated' ignorant small-minded roasts/rumors for everyone's enjoyment. Li-Yen Johnson paints her toenails a sultry red that drives men crazy. Jackie Greenwood is seeing Al Sharpton on alternate Friday evenings. Mary Louise Bewley and Wolf Blitzer are an item in the Atlanta social scene. Eugene White and Oprah Winfrey are talking. Willie Giles has his eyes on Tina Turner's legs. Jane Kendricks has located Rosie O'Donnell's cell phone number. Prudence Bridgwaters was dissed by Wanda Sykes. Dr. Clency is hot on the trail of Denzel Washington. Larry Yarrell will be appearing on the Jerry Springer Show during our Spring Break. Mary Bush was selected to be on the X-Treme Makeover Show next month. Michael Brown, IPS School Board Chairman, has accepted an invitation from Dr. Phil to discuss the ramifications of enabling one's offspring to be bad and get away with it. Dexter Suggs is the surprised recipient of a hardback copy of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's "How to Win Friends and Influence People". Suggs and Cassandra Shipp will also receive copies of the Glencoe grade 9 Grammar text, complements of the textbook rep. Shipp will also receive one-on-one training with Bill Gates on 'how to use the Microsoft email spellcheck/grammar feature'.
Merit pay is a great concept but will not work until hiring practices are also based on merit.
ReplyDeleteI am inspired about some of the current postings, and I agree that rote learning does have it's place in teaching today. You do need feedback from your students, communication is the center of the learning process.
ReplyDeleteOn cultural literacy, you are right, some of our teachers and many of our kids don't have any cultural literacy. A few years ago I was at an event with three older teachers and a young teacher, the young teacher was trying to do a crossword puzzle, and asked the question "Civil War Scott?", the four of us in unison said "Dred" and then had to explain it to her, how can you make it through U.S. History in high school and not know the Dred Scot decision?
ReplyDelete@Merit pay is a great concept
ReplyDeleteYour observation is so correct. Until HR hires totally and absolutely qualified people for the job posting, then merit pay is useless.
At present, I occasionally wonder that people hired are hired simply because they happen to know someone who knows someone who knows Dr. White. IPS may be a large urban school district; however, its hiring practices operate similar to a small bush league rural southern school district. It seems to be more about who you know than what you know. This is especially prevalent in the hiring practices of classified employees.
Re: cultural literacy
ReplyDeleteI'm an older teacher in IPS. I was fortunate to have had a Liberal Arts major AND an Education major. A dual major, if you will. I've never regretted the Liberal Arts major; it set me aside from the others in the public school systems in which I've worked, and for that, I'm forever thankful.
Daily I work with teachers who lack cultural literacy about their own country. They are familiar with 'drilling down', 'chunking', 'talking to the text', 'marking up the text', graphic organizers, 'making thinking visible', and other trendy strategies; however, they lack content knowledge. They quite simply cannot comprehend the necessity of knowing such simple cultural facts commonly known to educated mankind such as: absolute zero, tempus fugit, the Iliad, alpha and omega, the melancholy Dane, the Ides of March, reason for Van Gogh's missing ear, El Greco, fait accompli, American Gothic, what Ponce de Leon searched for, the Northern Lights, the Bard, etc. These things may seem inconsequential on surface; however, little things make the difference in where you end up in life.
Way back in these posts, someone asked what school had a pilot program for Bonus or Merit pay. The school is John Marshall. All the math and ELA teachers {grades 7 through 10} are on the Merit or Bonus pay track. They interviewed for these jobs last year. I don't know how these jobs were advertised, but they were supposedly.
ReplyDeleteSomeone posted that one of the teachers was a 1st year teacher. That is correct. Not only is this teacher a 1st year teacher but also this teacher is on some sort of alternative certification schedule, maybe a teaching fellow or a Teach for America teacher. This means that this teacher is really not a certified teacher in the area in which they are teaching. They got their bonus anyway. The central office works in mysterious ways.
I've decided that Eugene White's mantra is, "Living well is the best revenge." That's a common mantra in the rural South among those who grew up with little and then later became happy members of the 'nouveau riche'. Nothing is more flamboyant and obnoxious than those with newly acquired riches whether it's in the inner city or in Geist. Old money has class; new money is tasteless.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of "Out of Pocket"...How's this one for "out of the taxpayer's pocket"?
ReplyDeleteEugene White and the school board members use IPS school police as chauffeurs each time any of them are taking a flight or on a return flight. Wouldn't it be nice if none of us needed to pay to park at the airport, pay for a taxi or limo or arrange for a friend to drop us off and pick us up at the airport. Unfortunately IPS does NOT have a royal family and these people need to quit using the IPS school police as their personal chauffeurs.
(Small people are interested only in talking about other people; whereas, brighter more intelligent people enjoy the discourse of 'ideas')
ReplyDeleteIt seems that we finally had a topic with many interesting comments until the person who posted this comment felt compelled to "jumpstart a hot discussion of unfounded and 'totally fabricated' ignorant small-minded roasts/rumors" ....
Sounds like you were one of the people "bored with the discourse of 'ideas'".
Curious observation. When the posts on this blog concern individual people and things such as 'ruby red slippers', then there are many active posters joining in. On the other hand, when the posts are primarily about 'ideas', then the active posters are missing. Does that tell us anything about the average IPS teacher? It should.
ReplyDeleteSmall people are interested only in talking about other people; whereas, brighter more intelligent people enjoy the discourse of 'ideas'.
This speaks volumns to the IPS dilemma. We have a large group of ignorant, small-minded people teaching our students. Unless the discussion is leaning toward adultery, someone's style of dress, or someone's jealousy of another employee, then the discussion just stops.
Strangely you were the only person in this thread to have deviated from the the track of the original thread. Since no one moderates this blog there is a lot of thread drift. So this thread had drifted from out of pocket expenses to merit pay, but no one had mentioned toes, shoes or infidelity until you brought it up.
Where is the man in the Ruby Red slippers?? What a fool!!
ReplyDeleteBack to Merit and/or Bonus pay. Is it true that John Marshall has teachers who are receiving bonuses? I read this in an earlier post above, and I have heard this is true, but I would like to know more.
ReplyDeleteI'm not an IPS employee, but I've looked all over the Internet for any information on it and can't find a thing. If the John Marshall/merit pay thing is true, it's being kept a secret from the public.
ReplyDeletenot a rumor but probably a secret...there are 4 math teachers and 4 language arts teachers receiving bonus pay at marshall...total bonus for the year is 5,000...students had pretest at start of semester...students took post test at end of semester...bonus based on test results...tests designed by downtown people...donna walker and theresa morris...all done at directive of li-yen johnson
ReplyDeleteSo the bonus was based on improvement, not simply how they did on the final test? (Otherwise, why pretest?)
ReplyDeletecorrect on improvement...outsiders gave both pre and post tests...good idea but disruptive...students had scrimmages and post tests on back to back days...kids are tested out and burned out...one high achieving teacher passed out in class because of exhaustion...too much pressure...high rate of student absences has negative impact on expected improvement...absences are out of teacher control...inclusion teachers feel left out because they teach in these classes but get no bonus for any student improvement...this was not thought out initially...overall a good idea but needs tweaking...
ReplyDeleteThere are nine (9) Master Teachers at Marshall this year. Four in math, four in English, and one in Over/Under Special Education. Dr. Johnson spearheaded this program of Bonus Pay and the participating teachers are called Master Teachers. I am unsure if these positions were advertised on the IPS employment webpage or were available through the grapevine or by word of mouth.
ReplyDeleteThis book by Diane Ravitch is a must read.
ReplyDelete"The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education"
She formerly touted NCLB as the best thing since sliced bread, but after years of not seeing the expected and hoped for results, Ravitch changed her mind. It's always refreshing to read something by a respected writer/researcher who has the courage to admit they were wrong.
The positions at John Marshall were listed on the IPS website (employment openings) last summer before school started and the incentive was written about. It was no big secret but, at the time, it seems that people were hesitant to apply to go there.
ReplyDeleteMerit pay? A good idea if standards are used:
ReplyDelete1. Student performance
2. Teacher performance
3. Narratives of peer relationships
4. Teacher attendance
5. Teacher professional development
6. Questionnaire on current events and technology proficiency.
This is a big iceberg and not quantifiable with student performance;
How are the students doing at Marshall this year?
ReplyDeleteI can't help but wonder if the speculation about "dumbing down the tests" happens with merit pay. I wonder what kind of radical shift will need to happen with everyone involved to make it viable. Our test scores are not good, but when I see things like the Harlem Improvement Zone I think there may be some golden nuggets if we just work for change, not against it.
ReplyDeleteOff the topic, for sure, but this is something I'd like to offer at this point. Take it for whatever it's worth to you.
ReplyDeleteWhen top-level school administrators voluntarily take a small salary reduction, it DOES engender trust, build faith, and all those other good PR type things with those employees in the rank and file salary ranges.
Many years ago in another district in another state, I was a young special education teacher fresh out of graduate school with my Master's degree and assigned to teach a class of preschool handicapped students with severe and profound disabilities. This meant that most of the young students were not toilet trained, and, of course, diapering would be a part of our (I mention 'our', because I had a full-time teacher assistant) classroom routine.
My very wise principal, a former special ed teacher, told me on the first day on the job that I should never ask my teacher assistant to do anything that she'd not seen me do first, including changing a really messy diaper. I listened to her recommendation, and I changed that first really messy diaper that appeared in my classroom on the first day of school. I changed that messy, smelly diaper like it was nothing more than wiping up some spilled juice.
Learning that simple lesson of never expecting a person earning far less money to do things that you're not willing to do first and without complaint has been a key to my success. That lesson has served me well for almost 30 years.
Moral of the story: Don't ask folks who earn less money than you to suffer through bad things without first showing some sacrifice on your part. It works every time because it shows respect for the other person, it shows a spirit of equity, and it shows that we're all in it together.
The most effective 'leaders' are 'servant leaders'.
Our Ed Center administrators might wish to revisit that concept of 'servant leadership'. They might be pleasantly surprised to learn that the rank and file IPS employee would go the extra mile and would suffer through the bad financial times without complaint. Modeling works for students; modeling works for adults, also.
Good post!
ReplyDeleteExcellent post!
ReplyDeleteAs a retired secretary I once had a principal who would fill in no matter the position. I saw her help out with phones, classes, hall duty, you name it.
ReplyDeleteShe attended all events at the school. She made her own coffee and cleaned up her own area.
She was the last caring, respectful principal with whom I worked.
I became so disillusioned with IPS after her left.
Servant leadership is a philosophy and practice of leadership, coined and defined by Robert Greenleaf and supported by many leadership and management writers such as James Autry, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter Block, Peter Senge, Max DePree, Larry Spears, Margaret Wheatley, Jim Hunter, Kent Keith, Ken Jennings and others. Servant-leaders achieve results for their organizations by giving priority attention to the needs of their colleagues and those they serve. Servant-leaders are often seen as humble stewards of their organization's resources (human, financial and physical).
ReplyDeleteHistory of Servant Leadership
The general concept is ancient. Chanakya wrote, in the 4th century B.C., in his book Arthashastra:
“the king [leader] shall consider as good, not what pleases himself but what pleases his subjects [followers]” “the king [leader] is a paid servant and enjoys the resources of the state together with the people.”
There are passages that relate to servant leadership in the Tao Te Ching, attributed to Lao-Tzu, who is believed to have lived in China sometime between 570 B.C. and 490 B.C.:
The highest type of ruler is one of whose existence the people are barely aware. Next comes one whom they love and praise. Next comes one whom they fear. Next comes one whom they despise and defy. When you are lacking in faith, others will be unfaithful to you. The Sage is self-effacing and scanty of words. When his task is accomplished and things have been completed, all the people say, ‘We ourselves have achieved it!’
Jesus urged his followers to be servants first. He told his followers:
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28; also Mark 10:42-45)
Jesus also washed the feet of his disciples, as an example of the way in which they were to serve each other. (John 13: 12-15)
Robert Greenleaf , in his classic essay, The Servant as Leader, described the servant-leader in this manner:
The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.
The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?
What type leadership do we have in IPS?
Lovely, thank you for elevating this discourse.
ReplyDeleteWe all should be thankful we're not in Kansas City, and pray conditions don't fall to that level.
ReplyDeleteRemember, Willie Giles came to IPS after being dismissed from Kansas City Public Schools as the Acting Superintendent.
ReplyDeleteHe was asked to leave for two reasons:
1) He was charged with sexual harassment, and
2) He hired a relative who had stolen $40,000 from her previous employer.
If you're unsure if this is true, then Google
"Willie Giles" "Kansas City". You'll get several hits documenting this.
Dorothy, he's not in Kansas anymore.
ReplyDelete@Dorothy, he's not in Kansas anymore.
ReplyDeletePrecisely. The man now walks among us here in IPS. He was hired by IPS after his documented shenanigans in Kansas City. What was the School Board thinking?
Why don't you ask Pat Pritchett. Didn't he hire the man?
ReplyDeleteSuperintendents recommend; the School Board hires.
ReplyDeleteYou actually have to ask what was the school board thinking.....We all know that this school board does NOT think...ever.
ReplyDeleteTo help a few out:
ReplyDeleteWe elected Bennett, when he runs again - don't vote for him
Marshall and merit pay has been all over the news media including paper, radio, and airwaves -not new news or hidden news
I think that Shirl Gilbert hired Dr. Giles, who bought Douglass Ann with him from Kansas.
But here's the big question - why did Dr. Giles' secretary get a $15,000 raise? Maybe she not Sandra Towne is involved.