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04/09/2010
Nathan
Tenafly High School, Tenafly/NJ
Initially, I thought merit pay would be a great thing to have. However, after rethinking it I would not be in favor of merit pay for several reasons. Merit pay would cause teachers to change their teaching intentions. For example, instead of teaching the full curriculum and making stardarized test, they would be making easy tests where students couldn't prove their true abilities. Also, some students improve greatly in a classroom but not necesarily see their grade improve. While it is nice to have a good grade, it should not be the main objective of any class and should certainly not be the objective of the teacher. Instead, teachers should be evaulated just by their teaching abilities. Some teachers do not explain things well and refuse to explain it again. While others are always helping, guiding and there for students. Merit pay would cause a curropt school system where learning gets taken over by greed.
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03/11/2010
Joshua
Warren Area High School, Warren, PA
I don't think teachers should be given merit pay for student achievements. If this is done based on the grades of students, then a corruption of this system will quickly occur. Some teachers will give easy assignments and intentionally bolster the grades of their students; actually teaching will be forgotten. And if this is the case, it will obviously be unfair to other teachers who work harder to make sure their students learn through hard practice (especially AP classes). But if there was a legitimate way to grant merit for the better teachers, then that would improve their alredy great teaching methods.
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03/10/2010
Doug
Warren Area High School, Warren, PA
A students educational achievement are based on their own individual abality. ALthough students would be able to learn without teachers I wouldnt say that the skills of the above average students should be credited to the teachers. Its the students ability to learn and to put the practice the stuff that they are instructed. I dont think teachers should recieve extra money just because they teach gifted students.
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02/04/2010
Ana I
Nimitz HS, Irving, Texas
Offering merit pay for the achievement of students is unfair. Like the article has already stated, giving teachers bonuses based on the results of standardized tests gives an unfair advantage to teachers who have more gifted students or who teach in more affluent school districts. Although the idea of getting extra pay is a motivation, that shouldn't be what drives the teacher. Rather than focusing the attention on individual teachers, the focus should be placed on the students as a whole. By offering incentives for the students, most of which would be content with a pizza party or some other alternative, we are ensuring that the students are willing to work to learn and achieve standards of excellence. A system of merit pay would not improve the education system. Rather, it would harm it because it takes attention away from what is really important: the education of students. Because there are so many levels of education, so many different subjects, and such a broad array of types of students, it is impossible to propose a method that would ensure teachers and equal chance at earning that bit of extra money.
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02/03/2010
Chris R.
Nimitz, Irving, Texas
Admittedly, the prospect of merit pay seems logical. If you do your job, you should get a reward. It would certainly motivate you, right? But the problem with this whole merit pay thing is, obviously, determining the standards for this merit thing. In the state of Texas, they use the TAKS test. While this may work for core teachers, there are those who get ignored: AP teachers, ESL, electives, etc. I mean, unless the TAKS graders have started allowing you to write your compositions in German, the foreign language teachers are sunk. And what if, heaven forbid, you get a class full of shlubs who really don't care if you get a pay raise and don't even want to be in school. Well, you tried. You really did. But, somehow, those darn kids failed TAKS. No merit pay for you, I guess. I could be wrong about all this, as I'm just hearing this third-hand. But the issue remains. If we give merit pay, what will be the major determining factor?
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02/02/2010
MIlton
Nimitz High School, Irving, TX
I don't really think giving merit pay to teachers is a good idea. For one thing only, school is not a business. And another problem is how their actually going to measure the success of each individual student. I heard their thinking of using tests. But then yet again I don't think ONE test on a single day will measure the success rate of the students for the whole year. I don't think that is fair for both the students and teachers. Yes I agree that teachers are not payed enough for their work. But it don't think money should motivate teachers to teach better. I mean a good teacher will make you learn regardless of her pay, right?.
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02/02/2010
Thomas
Nimitz, Irving, TX
If teachers were paid by merit it would definitely increase student performance because teachers will be working harder to try and make sure their students are up to par. This will also shift the view of teachers to a status of more importance and prestige due to the added money. Unfortunately this brings up the question of how to judge the student performance since all students have different levels of aptitude and skill in their work, so standardized tests are thrown out of the equation due to this fact, because very few teachers would want to take a pay cut by teaching kids with special needs. Then if they try judging by the amount of how much a student improves it would count out the teachers of GT kids because there is not much room for improvement at that level.
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01/30/2010
Nabila
Nimitz High School, Irving, TX
Teachers are the educators of the world who provide a vital source of information for all generations. In general, they should all get a pay raise or a higher starting salary for their profession, as it is one worth much respect and acclaim. But one may argue, what if a teacher is doing a lousy job and their students aren't learning anything but are receiving easy grades?Although the merit pay system may work in other career fields, I don't think there is a fair way to distribute merit pay to teachers. Scores on standardized tests, especially on the TAKS test in Texas, don't accurately measure a teacher's success and limits the number of teachers being evaluated under such measures, such as AP and fine arts teachers. Also, publicly portraying merit payed teachers may cause animosity in the working environment. Merit pay is a great proposal for the education system, it just needs to be modified fairly if it is to be widely implemented.
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01/29/2010
Rosaura
Nimitz High School, Irving, TX
If teachers could receive merit pay for student achievement that would be great if there was only an flawless method to measure student achievement. But there isn't, at least not now. But suppose they evaluated teachers through the improvement of standardized test scores among their students, teachers will put more emphasize into test prep practice than actually teaching the students, which not only consists of cramming information down the student's brain to pass the tests, but it bores them which make students become disinterest in learning. Thus, the merit pay for student achievement at the moment will only harm the education system. Even further, not all teachers deal with standardized tests, such as fine arts teachers, so not all teachers would be eligible for merit pay. There are many shortcomings with this idea; however, I agree “that if we truly value teachers, we should simply pay them all a better salary.”
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01/29/2010
Duc Cao
Plano TX
Why not? In the retail industry, if your sales numbers are high, you get a raise. Well, shouldn't this correlate to the educational system? If you perform well and your students benefit from your excellence, then shouldn't you also get a raise? Of course, the problem doesn't lie there --it's how schools determine 'merit'. For those in Texas, I'm pretty sure merit is determined by TAKS scores and other types of standardized testing. Although quite a few teachers will benefit from this method, there are also many who gets left in the dark: special ed teachers, AP teachers, ESL, etc. Like a truck vs sedan, there's no proper way to accurately compare their performance versus the rest of the teaching staff. They each have their own teaching agenda and student base. However, they are getting graded on the same standardized scale as other teachers who actually teach based on the TAKS cirriculum. Talk about unfair. Of course, all of this is based on wild speculation about merit pay that I've heard through hearsay. I could be completely wrong, which I probably am.
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01/29/2010
Joji
Nimitz High School, Irving, TX
At first the merit pay system sounds like a great idea, paying teachers for their students academic success, but how will this academic success be measured? Some believe it could be measured with standardized testing, for example the TAKS test (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skill). But some teachers are blessed with an honors class, a group of students who take this test with ease, as other teachers are not as fortunate. The teachers who have to teach regulars students have to try even harder with kids who struggle or just don't care. And when the test scores come back the honors teacher will have their bonuses and the regulars teachers who tried even harder will probably get nothing. This is one way the merit system fails. Another would be for teachers who teach electives such as: Spanish, Art, French, Band, etc. These courses cannot be tested by a standardized test because these courses lack that, and would the teacher be able to reap the benefits of the merit pay system? I believe that the merit pay system will not work in the way they are promoting it at this time, but if they were able to find a way to see the actual “merit” of a teacher then they could implement a merit pay system with a little more success.
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01/29/2010
Silvana
Nimitz High School, Irving, Texas
It is common knowledge that nothing in cyber space is private. I believe that it is not unreasonable for teachers and coaches to view Facebook pages and use the information that they find to influence their decisions. Therefore, I don't understand why people are so surprised that employers and officials would seek to view Facebook pages, and conduct the modern version of a background check. Teachers and coaches invest their time and effort into students;they want to know what's going on, ensure that their students are not doing any drugs or alcohol. There is also the issue of safety, after events like Columbine, institutions are worried and on the constant look-out for threats. I believe that if people don't want certain things about themselves to become know, they shouldn't put them on the internet in the first place.
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01/29/2010
Silvana
Nimitz High School, Irving, Texas
I have mixed feelings about “merit pay.” On one hand I believe that extraordinary teachers should be recognized and rewarded for their efforts; they are deserving of the bonuses. “Merit pay” would also provide initiative for teachers to work to achieve a higher level of success. However, if the analysis of a teachers “success” is based on test scores (TAKS) it just is not an accurate portrayal. I believe that if “merit pay” was implemented at Nimitz, even more emphasis would be placed on TAKS. To qualify for the bonuses teachers would spend more time teaching test prep than actually teaching the required material, their students would not benefit from superior standardized testing skills in the real world. Because of the lack of concrete and fair evaluating system to decide which teachers deserve the extra pay, I don't think that merit pay is a good idea right now. Until there exists a way to truly evaluate the capability of teachers, the “merit pay” idea should not be implemented, it would just cause to many issues.
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01/29/2010
Edgar N.
Nimitz High School, Irving, Texas
I admire the many teachers at my school and everywhere else that dedicate their hearts and hard work every year to their student. These teachers deserve a merit pay; however, the system of merit pay is too flawed and has many negative aspects that make it almost impossible to implement. If teachers are given a raise by improving standardized test scores, it might cause some teachers to focus only on the test instead of focusing their attention on the entire course. This would be at the expense of the many students who value their education and don’t care about standardized tests. Also, there are many teachers who don’t teach courses that have standardized tests, such as fine arts and language teachers. This is an unfair system because it singles out only certain teachers, and it might cause them to focus only on getting the coveted raise. A test does not necessarily measure how well a teacher teaches a subject; rather, it’s just a reflection of how well a teacher can prepare students for one test, cutting out plenty of other educational opportunities in the process. If we appreciate our teachers so much, we should give them a raise. The merit based system has no place in the education system.
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01/29/2010
Jocelyn
Nimitz High School, Irving, Texas
I think teachers receiving a merit pay for student's achievement would be a complicated situation to figure out, because it seems in general a very confusing topic. It would create chaos in the educational environment, because humans are known to be very competitive with each other. Teachers should be evaluated by student's test score through out the year and should receive bonuses for things that other teachers don't do. For example, if a teacher decides to stay after school, a regular school day ending at 3:45 pm, until 10 pm in the night just to help out students they should receive a bonus. For not giving up on their students and giving up their own time. If the teacher merit pay would affect our school, by teachers putting more pressure on students to learn quicker and absorb more information and it would cause stress in student's life.
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01/28/2010
Telma
Nimitz High School, Irving, TX
The "merit pay for student achievement" presents a quite unfair and unreasonable way of judging how "deserving" our teachers are. This would be either a dormant law that would need to be tweaked throughout, since we currently do not count on an accurate way of measuring individual success throughout the nation for both students and teachers, or it would be a very unfair law which would only benefit the interests of a concentrated minority of teachers. The teaching field in our society is widely recognized as one lacking fair or enough pay for the extra hours teachers must put into their jobs to successfully carry out with what is demanded of them. Indeed, the government first has to focus on leveling the wide work input and salary output gap by giving all teachers a better salary. After doing so, the government would then want to reconsider the "merit pay" ideal with better-defined regulations and execution principles.
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01/28/2010
Karina
Nimitz High School, Irving, Tx
Teachers should not receive merit pay according to their students achievements. Teachers should not have to raise their standards of teaching based on bonus income that would be acquired if their students meet some standards of improvement. How would these standards be measured? Treating students like experiments for economic purposes to determine if their teacher is qualified academically, sounds ridiculous. Why would students be willing to participate? Extra monetary gain should not interfere in the education of students. Teachers should already be teaching at high academic standards, more pay should not be an incentive to become a “better” teacher. Also, how will it be determined if students excel? Disadvantages exist between teachers, this merit based system will not work equally for teachers.
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01/28/2010
Ernesto
Nimitz, Irving/Tx
I think that it is a good idea to pay teachers depending on student achievement. It would boost the teachers motivation and in turn, boost the students scores. However, along with this plan they should create a system of determining the true succes of students. After all, whats stopping a teacher from changing a 61 to a 91 just for a bonus of $1,000.
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01/28/2010
Mauricio
Nimitz High School, Irving/TX
Teachers should be given merit pay depending on student achievement. But there is no false proof way to grade student achievement. At our school there has been talk of merit pay which would be based depending on TAKS scores, Texas' standardized test. But many teachers don't teach TAKS subjects, such as the fine arts department and the foreign language department. Teachers can't choose which students they get in their class so some teachers will have an easier time gaining merit pay than other teachers. I think that schools, as a whole, should receive money based on college entrance exams and then have the money divide up among teachers who receive good reviews based on the administration.
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01/28/2010
Matthew
Nimitz, Irving, Texas
The idea of merit based pay is actually a very good plan. Depending on how the plan is executed, it could encourage teachers to provide a better education for students. The execution of merit based pay is where the problems with this plan may occur. However, if this idea was planned and implemented properly, there could be drastic improvement in the education system. If teachers knew that they would be evaluated and paid according to their performance, then teachers may have more incentive to work harder. People do not understand how hard being a teacher really is, and how much work they go through daily. Extra pay for good teachers would be a nice reward for their hard work. The nice thing about this plan is that good teachers that do their work anyways, would be paid more for the good job their doing. However, the bad teachers that normally go “under the radar” would have to work harder if they wanted to get the extra money. The big question is; how do you evaluate a teachers performance? Personally, I believe judging by standardized test scores is a very poor way to judge teachers. Also, it would be hard to evaluate someones performance if an administrator was grading the teacher while sitting in the room. There is no “good” solution for evaluation right now, but a solution needs to be found soon so that this plan can be implemented. I also have an issue with how elective teachers and coaches might be included in this evaluation. There are no standardized tests for electives so it would be tricky to evaluate them. Besides the issues I have presented, I do support a merit based pay plan for teachers. Teachers deserve to get a bonus if they do their job correctly. For the teachers that do not do their job well, this plan might encourage their performance and turn them into top notch teachers. In my school, I believe that this would be great! Too many teachers at my school are just trying to get by. However, this might be able to change their minds. Overall though, I believe this is a good plan that, if executed correctly, would be very beneficial to education.
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01/27/2010
Amanda D
Nimitz High School , Irving, Tx
I do not think that teachers should get merit pay based on the achievement of the students. I disagree because students that do not pass the standardized tests, such as TAKS, just do not care. It's not fair to the teachers who work day after day to help these students, when in most cases they do not care enough to even make the effort. Although, I do believe there are students who try and just never understand. I also do not think that it is very fair to the teachers that are not involved in the standardized testing, like foreign language educators. They have no standardized test to check their achievement and would not be eligible for merit pay. In my opinion, this would not improve the education system, it would just make it more complicated and controversial. I believe that all teachers should get a pay increase. They deserve it! Teachers are the ones that educate the doctors and lawyers and so on. To have merit pay in my school environment, is not the best idea. For one, Nimitz does not have the funds to pay teachers extra because they had a high percentage of students pass a test. Secondly, many students that are in my school, do not care about their future and think that everything will be handed to them. It's sad but true.
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01/27/2010
Minh
Nimitz, Irving, Texas
A salesman manipulates: a teacher teaches us to escape manipulation, through knowledge, through analyses of history, science, and the arts. Education shouldn’t become a business, at least not below the public university level. By allowing merit pay to exist, not only do we devalue knowledge as another corporate product: we transform our teachers to bounty hunters. The ambitious ones will be all out for our heads, and, whether we are dead or alive, GPAs and state test score bubbles will be changed. Corruption and conflict will be rampant, as the few great teachers remaining ask “How do my AP Calculus kids affect my pay? There is no minimal state testing for the maximum!” Indeed, standards and ways of measuring the progress and proficiency of students are very vague, and what is vaguer is how the money will be obtained for the merit raises. Fire the honest teachers that give out Bs and a strict state testing environment? Cut back textbook and school materials to paradoxically increase productivity and learning? The fact that a teacher is a teacher and not a salesman reduces the sparkle of the fattening of the wallet to a dull twinkle, while the driving passion for the educating and bettering of our youth is still readily apparent. Let’s not switch to merit pay just yet: better yet, how about never?
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01/27/2010
Bryan
Nimitz, Irving, TX
I think that merit pay should not be allowed for teachers because it would be based on standardized test and not all teachers teach subjects like math, science, or english. Merit pay will also bring up different problems like higher teacher going to school with already higher education. The teachers in lower level schools will be less motivated because their students will be less likely to be exceptional. If merit pay is allowed it will just create a bigger gap in education levels. The areas with a high level of education will get higher and the areas with lower level of education will get lower. Also merit pay will make teachers work towards a goal instead of preparing them for life. The teachers will work towards trying to make their students do well on the test and they need to be preparing them for college or life. Teachers should be getting students ready for the real world and not trying to make them do better so the teachers can make more money.
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01/27/2010
Francisco
Nimitz, TX
Of course teachers should be given merit pay for all their hard work but of course not all teachers only the hard working ones who really work with the students and to teach them and to make them better at whatever subject. It improve the educational system for a while but then some teachers will take advantage of the merit pay and eventually get lazy. The teaches should be evaluated by having them take test and checking on the teacher often and also the student should have the test to see if they really have been learning so the teacher can have a merit pay. It will affect the school environment very much because other teachers would want to do the same thing.
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01/27/2010
Vita
Nimitz, Irving/Tx
I have no doubt that teaching is a stressful and difficult job. I know this because as a high school student I often see teachers struggle to get a concept introduced to the class. I see teachers repeat themselves 4 or 5 times to confused students. However, I also know that the struggles teachers go through are at the end of the day worthwhile, especially when the percentages of passing test grades are high. There are some teachers who exceed their teaching requirements and help students out even when its not their jobs. These teachers who continue to help and educate students even when the outcome doesn’t always seem significant deserve to be rewarded. Merit payment would be an ideal way to reward outstanding teachers, however the system used to establish who would get it is flawed. Using standardized testing as an indicator would be unfair to teachers who don’t teach core classes. Also this testing’s are just a sliver of what a teacher can accomplish with a student, it doesn’t necessarily show the whole picture. In order for merit payment to work each teacher as well as their class would have to be observed in detail. That would be the only way to ensure that deserving teachers received merit payment. Whether it is accomplishable or not, I think that would be the most legit way to evaluate whether a teacher deserved a merit payment or not.
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01/27/2010
Ana
Nimitz High School, Irving, Texas
Merit pay for teachers due to their students achievement would be a good way to improve the teaching system, it could encourage teachers to help their students to have a better understanding of the material that is being taught. There is a good chance that the education system would improve if teachers are rewarded with money for their students achievement because teachers will work harder to help their students perform better academically. For teachers that enjoy being lazy, this idea will push them to work harder on their teaching skills to get that extra money. To make this technique work out, students should be given frequent academic evaluations monitored that can demonstrate how well students are performing. If students show progress on every exam they take, teachers should get the money. Merit pay for teachers will affect the careless teachers at my school by motivating them to work harder with their students to actually teach them the material that they need to know, not only careless teachers will be motivated also the entire staff will take action into making this work successfully.
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01/26/2010
Stacie
Nimitz, Irving, Texas
Merit pay isn't a very good solution for the education problems we are facing in Texas. Since merit pay is determined by the student success rate, Irving schools focus all of their time trying to perfect the TAKS test. This tactic is lowering the education standards. The TAKS test isn't hard. We should be more focused on the SATs and the ACTs instead of TAKS. The SATs are much more difficult and more involved than the TAKS test. If a student can make high SAT scores, the TAKS test will be a breeze. The merit pay is also unfair to elective teachers because they might not have a curriculum that focuses on the core classes or have a standardized test for their class, so how can they get the same benefit of the merit pay program?
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01/26/2010
Edgar
Nimitz, Irving, Texas
The idea of a merit-based pay for teachers sounds like a good idea because it is sure similar to those examples of how businesses hand out bonuses for “superior work”. But what about the teachers with students who are at a disadvantage educationally, not being as far advanced as others. This setback, one of many, falters a system that could not succeed in a public school system or a private school system. The fact that the teachers who received the bonus pay would be made public does present a problem, causing conflict among the teachers. It is presented that teachers do support a friendly working environment, and this would deteriorate the relationships they have with other teachers. I believe that a overall raise for all teachers would be a better plan than a merit-based pay. This way all teachers are all stimulated to push their students even harder to succeed.
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01/26/2010
Genesis
Nimitz High School, Irving, Texas
There is no doubt that there exist many great teachers who deserve a raise every year for the great work and education they provide to their students and within their community. However, the idea of merit pay within the educational system has too many negative implications to successfully be applied. First of all, there is the issue of using standardized tests as a way of measuring a teacher's worth. While it may provide an incentive for a teacher to more effectively teach his or her students in order to raise scores, it may be too much of an incentive. Consider teachers who might pressure their students into scoring really well using rote memorization and extra work, rather than actually teaching the subject at hand. No student would appreciate losing their education so that someone else could benefit in dollar amounts. This, however, does not ring true for all teachers. How does a test measure the worth of a teacher? Education should be about teaching, not money. The idea of merit pay for teachers, to me, is misguided, and is better left outside of education.
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01/24/2010
Linda
Nimitz, Irving/TX
Most ideas are great, but only the best can actually be enacted without any troubles. The current issue of paying teacher for their merits is too obscure to be in production. First off, there will always be a good teacher and a bad teacher in the eye of a student. Rather than trying to bribe teachers into being better, why not get the students to love the classroom and the subject instead? That’s how education should be given. Education is driven by passion not my monetary value. Paying good teachers bonuses demoralizes education because what happens if the teacher betrays the students for money. Already, there are good teachers, students just are too ignorantly and lazy nowadays to care. The modern American is spoiled and we should do something about that rather than using money to make the situation better. There are many good teachers out there, we, the students, just have to look for them and enroll in there classes.
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01/22/2010
Leigh Anne
Warren Hills, New Jersey
Merit pay for teachers is a good idea if it could be made to work without flaws. Obviously, there are serious issues with the system as it is being proposed with now. Teachers with the highest or lowest of students would be penalized, but neither of those are really the ones that need the most help. The people that are in the middle are the ones that really need to be motivated by teachers and that could excel under better teachers. Still, it remains unfair, and until those problems are solved, the idea should not be implemented.
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01/22/2010
Katie
WHRHS, NJ
Personally I believe that merit pay would be beneficial to the school. There are some schools where teachers do not want to be there and do not teach well, so with merit that teacher who does not want to work there will not get payed a lot of money.While the teacher who wants to teach and want to be at the school will earn the rightful amount of money. Merit pay will increase the efficiency of the teacher because they would be willing to work harder to earn more money. Merit pay in my opinion would increase the ability for a student to learn the material.
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01/22/2010
Dgital Native 2
Warren Hills Regional Hich School, NJ
How do you measure the merit of a teacher? Through a student's grades? How many students graduate? There is no system to measure a teacher's merit, so how can we raise a teacher's salary based on their "performance"?
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01/22/2010
Doug + Titus
Warren Hills, Washington, NJ
Merit pay is a good incentive for teachers to take more interest in their students grades and the outcome of their education. While it would not guarantee that students must learn it is a possibility for teachers, who are the root of education. It would be difficult to regulate because of the fraud that could take place. If there was a system to regulate and validate grades given to students then maybe it would be worth looking into but a costly endeavor at that.
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01/22/2010
Duoc
Nimitz, Irving,TX
The merit system, at a first glance, seems like it is a good idea to help motivate teachers to improve the education of their students. There are quite a few problems with this system. First of all, many schools have a wide range of education difficulty. They can range from a regulars course to dual credit classes. As the difficulty of the class increases, the students' performances change. Those that are “slower” or do poorer in class will tend to be in a regulars course, where as those that tend to do better students are in more demanding classes. So because of the range of classes, the efforts of the teacher are also varied. Another problem is that teachers should be willing to give the best education to their students. They shouldn't be bribed to do something they should already be doing.
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01/16/2010
Shequia
Northeast high School , Philadelphia, Pa
Merit pay is ridiculous for a teacher to receive. In some cases the teacher would use unusual types of punishment for every bad a student receives or even worse a teacher changing grade their own benefit. In the end of the pain and deception the student still never receives the chance at an education. Merit pay for a teacher is absolutely pointless and will endanger a childs chance at learning
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01/15/2010
Joshua Mr. Frank P.7
Northeast High School, Philadelphia
I personally believe that merit pay can be a good thing. It causes teachers to actually try to teach students. Those teachers that don't care about teaching will make less money at first. When they see how much they could be making, they will strive to be the best teacher they can be. Of course there are some teachers that may just pass the students just to get money. The sad thing is, it will be the students who will suffer. When they get to college, they will be completely unprepared for obstacles put ahead of them. I think that merit pay should not only be judged on grades but there should be tests every few weeks that are monitored. These tests will show if the students are actually learning something and, since they are monitored, can stop teachers from just giving everyone an A.
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01/15/2010
Kenny
Northeast High School, Phila, PA
I think that teachers should be given merit pay because if they know they are being paid off of what they do they will work harder to make sure that more students understand. I think that it would improve the school systems because teachers will try harder to make sure that their entire class understands and I think students will learn more if teachers put in more effort. It would effect my environment because all the teachers who dont try as hard to teach their class will put in more effort to make sure they get paid the money they think they deserve. I think its a shame that it would take merit pay to get teachers to try harder to get more students to understand.
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01/15/2010
todd
northeast highschool, philadelphia PA
if teachers got merit pays for student achievement it would most likely improve the education system. Teachers would have more of a reason to teach their student and would try harder to get them to understand what they are teaching. As long as they dont get money just for students passing this will work.
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01/15/2010
Rich D.
Northeast High School, Philadelphia, PA
I am undecided on if teachers should receive merit pay. There is one big factor on why they shouldn't have it, the students. I know, from going to a public high school, that not all the students care whether they do good or not. This would bring down the teachers pay whether they teach the subject the best in the world or not. At the same time, I feel that it would improve the teaching a lot due to the teachers trying harder to get more money. If we were in an environment where the students tried their best then I do not see why it would be a bad idea for merit pay. Who knows, maybe merit pay will force the teacher to care more and encourage the students to do the same. I still am undecided whether they should get it or not, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to test out.
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01/15/2010
Rachel
Nimitz HS, Irving, TX
I don't think teachers should get merit pay for student achievement. It does have some potential for good in motivating teachers to help students do better, but I feel it would do more bad than good. Some teachers may push and pressure their students just for their benefit and it would cause overstress for the student. There are also many more things in schools that could more money before teachers pay such as, text books, computers, better facilities in general, and much more.
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01/15/2010
Ashley (7th pd)
Northeast High School, Philadelphia
I think that merit pay for teachers is not the best idea. Paying one teacher more than another would: 1.)produce a tension between teachers, and 2.) belittle the underpaid teachers, making them feel as though their teaching skills are inferior. The merit pay ofr teachers would be based on student performance through a standardized test. What if you have some students who just dont care? Or those who really cant grasp the subject? If these students fail the test, the teachers recieves no extra pay. But who is to say this teacher wasn't a quality teacher? The teachers who would earn extra pay are the "easy" class teachers, where everybody passes for doing nothing. This method of pay would make quality teachers question their method of teaching, and possibly lower their standards in teaching to compete for higher pay. Education should not jus be based on salary, it should be based on the teachers love and dedication to the students, striving for excellence.
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01/14/2010
Corbin
Northeast High, Philadelphia,Pa
Merit pay is only a good way for salesmen to make more money not teachers.I think this is ridicules, essentially this is asking teachers to have to try and force their students to do better. This will be the eventuality if this kind of teaching system becomes a national thing. If you ask me, teachers don't have nearly any control as to weather the students do better or not.Just as it is stated in the article, everybody has a different circumstance. Another thing is every teacher is different.Under pressure some teachers work better and some don't. If you really look at it this kind of system is based on human emotion and behavior.Adding on to this learning is to much of an abstract and cumbersome thing to rate purely on written test. Learning is not like sales because in sales there is one objective which is making things look appealing,fun,and easy to use. Whereas teaching is subjective and and is different for everyone.
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