Performance Based Pay for Teachers

Performance-based pay for teachers, or merit pay, is a trending educational topic. Teachers pay, in general, is often highly debated. Performance-based pay ties teaching components such as standardized test scores and teacher evaluations to a salary schedule. Performance-based pay originated from a corporate model that bases a teachers salary on job performance. Higher performing teachers receive more compensation, while lower performing teachers receive less. The Denver, Colorado school district may have the most successful performance-based pay program in the nation. The program, called ProComp, is seen as a national model for performance-based pay. ProComp was designed to impact critical issues such as student achievement, teacher retention, and teacher recruitment positively. The program has been credited with boosting those areas, but it does have its critics. Performance-based pay will likely continue to increase in popularity over the next decade. Like any educational reform issue, there are two sides to the argument. Here, we examine the pros and cons of performance-based pay for teachers. Pros Motivates Teachers to Make Improvements in the Classroom Performance-based pay systems offer teachers a reward based on meeting set performance measures typically tied to student performance. These measures are based on educational research and are a set of best practices intended to boost overall student outcomes. Many of the best teachers are already doing a lot of these things in their classrooms. With performance-based pay, they may be asked to take it a little above what they normally do, or it may motivate low performing teachers to get their acts together to receive their bonus. Provides Teachers With the Opportunity to Receive a Higher Salary People typically do not become teachers because of the salary. But, it doesnt mean that they do not want or need more money. Sadly, a relatively large number of teachers across the country are picking up a second job to keep their family afloat financially. Performance-based pay not only provides teachers with an option to make more money but also motivates them to meet targeted objectives while doing so. It is a win, win situation both for the teacher and their students. The teacher makes more money, and in turn, their students get a better education. Invites Competition Thus Raising Student Performance Performance-based pay creates competition among teachers. The better their students perform, the more money theyll receive. Higher outcomes translate to higher pay. Teachers are often competitive by nature. They want their fellow teachers to be successful. But, they also want to be more successful then them. Healthy competition pushes teachers to become better, which in turn boost student learning. Everyone wins when the best teachers work hard to stay at the top, and mediocre teachers work hard to improve enough to be considered one the best. Allows Bad Teachers to Be Removed Easier Many performance-based pay systems include components which enable principals to terminate teachers who continuously fail to meet goals and objectives. Most teacher unions adamantly opposed performance-based pay because of this element. Standard teacher contracts make it difficult to terminate employment, but a performance-based pay contract makes it easier to remove a bad teacher. Teachers who are unable to get the job done are replaced by another teacher who may be able to get things on track. Aids in Teacher Recruitment and Retention Performance-based pay can be an attractive incentive especially for young teachers who have a lot to offer. The opportunity for higher pay is often too compelling to pass up. To passionate teachers, the extra work is worth the higher salary. Also, schools offering performance-based compensation typically have no problems attracting top teaching talent. The pool is usually bottomless, so they can get quality teachers from the beginning. They also keep their good teachers. The best teachers are easy to retain because they are well respected and likely will not receive a higher salary elsewhere. Cons Encourages Teachers to Teach to Standardized Tests A large part of the performance-based pay objectives rests in standardized test scores. Teachers across the nation are already feeling the pressure to abandon creativity and originality and instead to teach to the tests. Attaching an increase in pay only amplifies that situation. Standardized testing is all the rage in public education, and performance-based pay just adds fuel to the fire. Teachers skip once celebrated teachable moments. They neglect valuable life lessons and have essentially become robots all in the name of passing a single test on a single day during the school year. Can Potentially Be Costly to the District School districts across the United States are already strapped for cash. Teachers on a performance-based contract receive a base salary. They receive a â€Å"bonus† for meeting specific objectives and goals. This â€Å"bonus† money can add up quickly. The Denver Public School District in Colorado was able to start ProComp thanks to voters who approved a tax increase that allowed them to fund the incentive program. It would have been impossible to fund the program without the revenue generated from the tax increase. School districts would find it exceedingly difficult to maintain the funds necessary to run a performance-based pay program without additional funding. Dilutes a Teacher’s Overall Value Most teachers offer much more than just the ability to meet learning objectives or goals. Teaching should be about more than just a test score. Ideally, teachers should be rewarded for the size of the impact they make and for making a difference in the lives of their students. Sometimes those qualities go unrecognized and unrewarded. Teachers have a powerful influence on their students, yet theyre relegated to ensuring that their students are going to pass a test. It skews the real value of a teacher when you only base the job they are doing on meeting student performance objectives.   Fails to Consider Factors Beyond a Teacher’s Control There are many factors beyond a teacher’s control that influence student performance just as much or more than any teacher will. Factors such as lack of parental involvement, poverty, and learning disabilities offer real hindrances to learning. They are nearly impossible to overcome. The reality is that teachers who sacrifice to pour into the lives of these students are often seen as bad teachers because their students do not meet the level of proficiency that their peers do. The truth is that many of these teachers are doing a far superior job than their peers who teach at an affluent school. Sometimes they fail to receive the same rewards for their hard work. Can Potentially Harm High-Risk Areas Every school is not the same. Every student is not the same. Why would a teacher want to teach in a school surrounded by poverty and have the cards stacked against them, when they can teach in an affluent school and have immediate success? A performance-based pay system would keep many of the best teachers from pursuing jobs in those high-risk areas because of nearly impossible odds to meet the performance measures needed to make it worth the while.

Frank Lloyd Wright s Life, Career, Influences And Impact...

Frank Lloyd Wright is Americas’ best known and most influential architect and arguably the greatest architect of the 20th century from anywhere in the world. Wright is known and respected throughout the world for his innovative and modern designs. As an architect Wright developed an organic and what became known as a distinctively American style throughout his work. Many believe that Frank Lloyd Wright changed the way we build and and live in the modern world. This essay will examine and evaluate Wrights life, career, influences and impact on the way we see American architecture. Wright was born on the 8th of June 1867 at the time when America was going through lots of industrial and social change. He was born in Wisconsin to Anne Lloyd Jones and William Carey Wright. His mother was a teacher and his father a gifted musician and Preacher. Wrights mother nurtured his appreciation of art and nature from an early age. She introduced him to Froebel’s wooden blocks and he later stated that this was one of the recurring influences in his career and can be seen in the geometry of many of his buildings. Undoubtedly a most major influence in his work is nature and the natural environment - Wright loved the Wisconsin landscape he explored as a boy. Nature is a recurring feature in his buildings and even where he positions his buildings - he later talked of architecture that â€Å"..is a grace to the landscape instead of a disgrace.† In 1885 his parents divorced, he stayed with hisShow MoreRelatedLouis Sullivan and the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building4679 Words   |  19 PagesNouveau Jewel of Chicago† Written by Joss Ryan P10528830 History and Theory ‘ARCH 2031’ 2012 Louis Sullivan and the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building Page 1 Art Nouveau is a very renowned style of art, applied art, and architecture. It is an influential design movement and an international philosophy. The name â€Å"Art Nouveau† itself means â€Å"new art† in the French language, and is also known as â€Å"Jugendstil† in German, which shows an encapsulation of vitality and youth, literallyRead MoreTexas Rangers13480 Words   |  54 Pagesa capacity crowd;his first lecture in Texas since his departure from Austin in the summer of 1957. I have arrived late, having driven the 350miles from San Antonio to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.Though there is a substantial contingent of young architecture students for whom the lecture is only one of a series,glancing around I reacquaint myself with the older faces;the balding,graying heads in the hall----Duane Landry and Jane Lorenz Landry,Bill Odum,Bill Booziotes,Rik Mcbride,and many,many others---allRead MoreProject Managment Case Studies214937 Words   |  860 PagesCanada (B) (see handout provided by instructor) AMP of Canada (C) (see handout provided by instructor) Lipton Canada 118 Riverview Children s Hospital 124 The Evolution of Project Management at Quixtar 145 3 PROJECT MANAGEMENT CULTURES 151 Como Tool and Die (A) 153 Como Tool and Die (B) 157 Apache Metals, Inc. 160 Haller Specialty Manufacturing 162 The NF3 Project: Managing Cultural Differences 163 An International Project Manager s Day (A) 172 An International Project Manager s Day (B)Read MoreFundamentals of Hrm263904 Words   |  1056 Pagesmoney From multiple study paths, to self-assessment, to a wealth of interactive visual and audio resources, WileyPLUS gives you everything you need to personalize the teaching and learning experience.  » F i n d o u t h ow t o M A K E I T YO U R S  » www.wileyplus.com ALL THE HELP, RESOURCES, AND PERSONAL SUPPORT YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS NEED! 2-Minute Tutorials and all of the resources you your students need to get started www.wileyplus.com/firstday Student support from an experiencedRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 Pagesbuilt-in pretests and posttests, focus on what you need to learn and to review in order to succeed. Visit www.mymanagementlab.com to learn more. DEVELOPING MANAGEMENT SKILLS EIGHTH EDITION David A. Whetten BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY Kim S. Cameron UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Prentice Hall Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul SingaporeRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesof Southern Life Lisa M. Fine, The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, U.S.A. Van Gosse and Richard Moser, eds., The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture in Recent America Joanne Meyerowitz, ed., History and September 11th John McMillian and Paul Buhle, eds., The New Left Revisited David M. Scobey, Empire City: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape Gerda Lerner, Fireweed: A Political Autobiography Allida M. Black, ed., Modern American Queer History Read MoreStrategic Marketing Management337596 Words   |  1351 Pagesnature of marketing The management process Strategic decisions and the nature of strategy The marketing/strategy interface Summary xi xiii 1 3 3 7 11 19 37 41 43 45 45 50 53 70 71 75 77 79 79 80 81 86 88 89 101 102 104 107 109 Stage One: Where are we now? Strategic and marketing analysis 2 Marketing auditing and the analysis of capability 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Learning objectives Introduction Reviewing marketing effectiveness The role of SWOT analysis Competitive advantage and the value chain

Food and Society Free Essays

The relationship between food and society require special attention. Food come first, no food no life, this is a fact, and nothing can be possible with out food. Society is a group of people related to each other through perseverance relations such as status, roles and social network. We will write a custom essay sample on Food and Society or any similar topic only for you Order Now In pre-industrial societies, food production is carried out through the use of human and animal labour which is the main economic activities. Industrial revolution in 19th century brought the incredible changes.The most important invention was a railway which has put an unbelievable impact on different societies. The railway makes feasible the movement of people and transports the goods from one city to another even from country to country. This makes possible the food that had previously never been seen or heard of became available to most of the people. Most of the societies rely on the food transport and production, then those societies can be divided according to their level of technology and their method of production. The study of food and society is gradually increasing which is recognised to be one that can make a significant contribution to our understanding of the context with in which the production and consumption of commercial food and beverages takes place. The provision of food and beverages forms a part of the activities of the hospitality industry. However the hospitality industry subject area, there is just a small number of texts that cover the field. As an alternative of texts and resources that can contribute relevant theoretical frameworks to support the study of food and society are to be found in a number of fields of study. How to cite Food and Society, Essays

Brand Management and the Marketing Mix Model

Question: What exactly is your product and how is it different from (or better than) other similar products? Where will you sell your product? Who are the potential buyers of the product and how does that price compare to similar products being offered? How will you let others know about your product, and how will you develop its presentation to appropriate markets? Answer: I choose to sell organic soap as it is 100% natural and not synthetic. The soap shall be sold in retail stores, cosmetic shops, and pharmacies. The potential buyers of the product are men and women belonging to 20-40 age groups present everywhere (Cain, 2014). I shall follow competitive pricing strategy at $9 as there is direct competition from other brands such as Dove, Lux and various others (Heerde et al., 2013). Hoardings and television advertisements shall help in presenting the product. References Cain, P. (2014). Brand management and the marketing mix model.J Market Anal,2(1), 33-42. https://dx.doi.org/10.1057/jma.2014.4 Heerde, H., Gijsenberg, M., Dekimpe, M., Steenkamp, J. (2013). Price and Advertising Effectiveness over the Business Cycle.Journal Of Marketing Research,50(2), 177-193. https://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jmr.10.0414