Posted 1 year, 0 months ago in 
Loading ...
In my way of thinking, it is our local elected officials and local ballot issues, not state and national items, that most directly and immediately affect me and my neighbors in Mesa County. For this reason, I urge all voters to not get hung up with the many state and national issues that first appear on the long ballot in November, but instead go right to the bottom and say “Yes” to 3A and 3B before returning to the other eight pages.
A “Yes” on 3A and 3B is an investment in our local schools, our local community and our local economy. The funding from 3A and 3B will build five new schools, providing much needed space for all of our kids to learn. The same schools will be used, as all schools are, as neighborhood centers for recreation and education. The added bonus of a “Yes” on 3A and 3B is to our economy. Capital projects of $185 million will keep our local economy healthy. And, as recently pointed out by the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce, this project will provide the educational infrastructure that businesses look to in their decision to move to the Grand Valley: good schools for employees’ kids and a well-trained workforce.
It is important to cast a vote on all of the ballot issues and all the candidate races this fall. It is vitally important to go to the bottom of the ballot and say “Yes” on 3A and 3B. The benefits to our community will be significant.
JOHN WILLIAMS
Grand Junction
22 Responses to “Good schools benefit our entire community”
Posted October 23rd, 2008 at 10:51 am Login to Send PM Report this comment
As a teacher that has been in our area high schools and as someone who has taught at OMMS, I will give my full support to 3A an 3B. Our biggest three high schools are already overcrowded and will be bursting at the seems in the next couple years. Year around school wouldn’t help aleviate the problem since that would simply spread the summer break out over the enire year. OMMS is outdated with a terrible open campus design not suited for a middle school. I don’t know about the need for new elementary schools, but they are probably facing the same things that we are at the secondary level. Our classes have 28-30 in them now, what happens when that grows to 35? One teacher for every 35 students? How much one on one time do you want your student to have with their teachers?
Posted October 23rd, 2008 at 2:48 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
It is difficult for me to appreciate or even accept the that there is difficulty in larger class sizes. That may be because my schooling, at grade and high school level, consisted of more than the 20 or 30 now considered “acceptable.” That, and the fact that I attended parochial schoo. Somehow, the “size” did not matter. But, our parents recognized that we were there to “learn” not to be “taught.” It was also the case that parents (at least most parents) realized that, no matter where we were, our behavior was their responsibility, and not that of anyone else. Somehow, many have forgotten that.
As one who appreciates and admires all types of knowledge, I am in favor of education. However, when looking at expenditures in the area of public eductational institutions, I always ask myself the following question: “The monies we are disbursing, do they constitute an investment or but an expediture?” Some of us have no problem, and will support the first, but have a great difficulty with, and totally oppose the second.
Going back to the foundation of our public school system, our founders believed in education for one primary reason. That was that it would produce an informed citizenry. Somehow, we have drifted away from that high standard, and allowed it to decline into the mere teaching of skills.
Now, while there is absolutely no problems with “skills”, that does not produce an ‘educated’ person, merely a skilled one.
Maybe, just maybe, before to committing ourselves to further major expenditures, we should all ask ourselves: What is it, exactly, that we are attempting to accomplish? Are we producing an ‘educated’ citizen, or merely the ’skilled’, whose only function in society will be to ‘toil’ for others?
Posted October 23rd, 2008 at 5:31 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
The best way to reduce class sizes is to have teachers teach. If one divided the number of D51 teachers by the number of D51 students, one gets the number of 17.7. Actual class size is in the mid 20’s. The difference is that almost 1/3 of D51 teachers are classified as TOSA - teachers on special assignment. So, adminstratively decide that teacher should be teachrs and class size will decrease. Just one of many areas where administrative decisions do not positively affect kids in the classroom.
And all of this ignores the data that there is not difference in student performnace levels or levels of school improvement for any class size over 15 and less than 30. In the vast majority of cases, class size is an excuse not a cause for poor student performance.
Posted October 23rd, 2008 at 6:15 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
One peron makes a good point. But to do what he/she asks, we would have to get rid of all special education teacher(they have very small classes that bring down the overall average), all gifted and talented teachers(same rationalle), all teachers invested in researching best practices, all teachers involved in training new teachers in new strategies, all progress monitors, and other support staff. That would give us better student to teacher ratios but far worse performances accross the board. And it is impossible to pull special assignment teachers into mainstream classes since many have no classroom or a very small converted broom closet at this time. Which classrooms would they teach in? We have no more rooms for them to use.
And I agree with your study that said classes between 15 and 30 show little difference, but that is the very thing that makes more schools necessary. We are already at 28-32, in two years we will be at 35-40. My classroom has no more room to expand.
And I agree with RL (wow, i really did say that) that we would be better equiped to deal with the mass of numbers if behavior and focus wasn’t such a concern. It is nearly impossible to suspend, expell, or hold back a student in public schools these days. I have students that have over a dozen F’s on their record and over 20 discipline sitations before they ever reach my 8th grade class. They have no intention to learn, don’t have the prerequisites to even be there, and have found that no matter what they do-nothing more serious than a lunch detention or a one day vacation(suspension) is in store for them. Pilling 30 studious and respectful young people with a curiosity for knowledge doesn’t present a problem. Putin 10 of those with 10 apathetic students to go along with 10 with behavior/attitude issues and you have problems. You spend far too much of your time dealing with the wrong 10 kids. I got into teaching because of my love of knowlege and ability to convey that to others-not to tell johnny to not staple his ear, tina cover your cleavage, and bill-you haven’t turned in anything in a month! Our disciplinary options have been severely hindered. We lost our best tool-parents. There was a day when the mere mention of disrespect or laziness from a student would result in a furious outcry from parents. Now we get….”well, if you can figure anything out to help, let me know.”
Posted October 23rd, 2008 at 8:08 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
“We would have to get rid of all special education teacher(they have very small classes that bring down the overall average), all gifted and talented teachers(same rationalle), all teachers invested in researching best practices, all teachers involved in training new teachers in new strategies, all progress monitors, and other support staff.”
Sounds bad right? Well, the static to declining studnet performance data in D51 suggests that this “deployment” of resources has had no positive effect on student outcomes. Student performance has been flat for over a decade. If the above strategies are effective, the information is not being shared. Sort of Like New Emerson that was supposed to be a “laboratory” school to develop and disseminate best practices. If you ask a D51 teacher, he/she will be unable to list a single practice coming out of New Emerson that has resulted in positive chnage in the district. And, like it or not, that should be the final judge of every $ spent by the district—what did that expenditure do to improve student performance? For all those things listed, the summary, at least so far, is NOTHING.
Posted October 23rd, 2008 at 8:36 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
I am a d51 math teacher that has attended several profesional development oportunities at Emerson. I believe they have helped me greatly in my craft, without getting into too much teacher speak for details. Revolving an entire philosophy and directing resources around a test score is not what I would suggest. We recently studied the CSAP questioning over the last 5 years and found that the number of advanced math questions shifts from year to year. For example, I am positive that I did a much better job in my 2nd year at my age group but got lower scores than the year before in my first year at the helm when I was grasping at straws at times. I found last week that one reason was that the test had 22 advanced math problems one year and only 11 the year before. More experienced teachers expressed concerns that they are only getting better year after year yet their scores seem to yo-yo every other year. Without going into more detail, it is enough to say that basing funding on one test score is not a reliable practice. Punishing bad scores with less funding will do certainly do nothing to fix the problem. And where would these reassigned teachers teach? In which rooms that we alreadys don’t have. I am a mainstream teacher that didn’t even have my own classroom for 2 years.
Posted October 23rd, 2008 at 10:10 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Sorry, but it is not just CSAP results that are flat — so are ACT, SAT and any other test you would like to reference. One test might be an abnormality, all the tests are a trend that is simply reninforced by the percentage of graduates required to take remedial courses when they start college. It’s interesting that you do not hear this argument of about CSAP coming from Redlands Middle School where math scores are 50% higher than any other middle school in the district.
As for funding, tying funding directly to results is the ONLY fair way to fund and it is the only way things in this district will change to prioritize student need over adult wishes.
Finally, it is NOT your classroom. Period. That room belongs to the students first and the taxpayers second. You are simply a leasee and if your results don’t show adequate improvement each year, your lease should be revoked. The reason is simple. In the current system the only ones who suffer if your performance does not meet adequate levels are the 6th grade teacher left to fix your misses, and the students. In this district, your failure is multiplied each year as math scores peak in third grade and decrease every year after that.
Posted October 24th, 2008 at 8:56 am Login to Send PM Report this comment
It is MY classroom as I am a tax payer myself. You are attacking teachers who do not get into this profession lightly. We have 4-5 year degrees that would translate to double or triple the incomes we receive as teachers. We are here because we have a passion for knowledge and a desire to desire to do the fulfilling job of molding and inspiring young minds. This isn’t a “just hang on for the money job.”
If funding was tied to performance and teacher pay was tied to performance-this would happen. All the good teachers would move to West Middle and Redlands Middle or to FMHS. Because there the test scores are always high, they would be high if elmer fudd was teaching. It is because they have a better raw material to work with. Intense parent involvement. I just conducted parent teacher conferences yesterday. I had 30 sets of parents come in(out of the 80 that I could have). Of those 30, 25 had A’s in class. I had one struggling parent come in for their student who was struggling with a D. See a coincidence? It is much easier to blame teachers-people your have seen your kid for 4-5 hours a week for a month or two(along with 90 other kids), then to blame your student, yourself, or the system.
Ok, now back your funding tied to CSAP. All the best teachers with the best credentials have used their seniority to move to those traditionally high achieving schools. Meanwhile that leaves the historically low achievers with only the lowest common denominator teachers-teachers that know they will probably be fired because the test scores at those schools haven’t gone up decades, no matter who was teaching, what techniques were used, or who was principal or president. They get latch key kids from poor areas with parents that are impossible to reach and learning gaps so wide you could park a truck in them. Sure would be nice to get some new strategies to deal with these learners-but one-person has reasigned those. It would be great to hear some techniques from some expert teachers-but one-person has reasigned those(they are at Redlands now). It would be nice to have a progress montitor to give them the extra help they need and keep them on track-but one-person has reassigned those too. The resource teacher is gone too-we just can’t get budget to pay for any teachers because our CSAP is so low. We get more and less prepared kids every year and we keep firing our teachers because the scores aren’t good. We can’t get any more good teahers in here because they won’t work at a low performing school like this. Our best or most affluent kids have moved to other schools….How do improve?
How does this scenario work? You really think this is the way? Heck I wouldn’t mind, I’m at a great school that has had great scores before me, they do now, and they always will. People go, the scores have been the same. I will get great bonuses for doing nothing different than my brother who struggles at another school with low scores. He may even be a better teacher, but he is going to get fired.
Posted October 25th, 2008 at 5:10 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
1. It is NOT your classroom until your bear personal consequences for failure to improve your teaching methods so that the student performance in your room improves. No accountability means no responsibility means no ownership.
2. You knew what the salary was before you started. Unless you want to pass a law requiring some sort of “job importance scale for pay” your argument is facicious. The priest/minister/pastor/rabbi at your church probably makes alot less than you do. Once again, you knew when you signed the contract, you still signed so no pity parties here. As for teacher “dedication” to the kids, the argument is destroyed by your own admission that senior teachers pick the “plum” jobs — if they are so dedicated to kids, why don’t more senior teachers show up at Title 1 schools. Teachers, like many other employees, want the easiest overall way to a paycheck.
3. The pay for performance issue is a relatively easy formula. It is based on the actual level of proficiency in your classroom on testing that is independant of your assessment, it is combined with growth measuremments for all kids (high performers deserve to grow one year in a year while under performers deserve to grow more than a year), since socioeconomic status is the most accurate predictor of student performance the proficiency scale is adjusted for that factor (but NOT the growth scale), and then the formula takes into account the entire school’s proficiency and growth measures as well as the entire district’s. That way all employees have a reason to focus on the needs of all students, not just those teachers in tested subject. Yes, the janitor, the cook, the safety resource office, and all district administrators pay is connected directly to student performance. The measurements and results are already available in education, it is just a matter of having a board of education with the guts to insist that teacher and employee unio.n reps come to the bargaining table and negotiated the terms of the deal. Good teachers should have the capability of being the district’s highest paid employee. Bad teachers can find a new line of work.
Yes, there would still be unions because unions serve the purpose of allowing the development of pay schedules for groups of employees. That avoids individual employee contract negotiations, something adminstrators in education would be totally incapable of doing to any acceptable level.
And finally, it would no longer matter how high your stack of previous paystubs is. Seniority would be gone, performance and performance alone would decide how much, if anything you were paid.
It is not a matter of not having the ability to do any of the above. It is simply a matter that the adults running this (and most) district prefer to keep the needs of adults ahead of the needs of kids.
Posted October 25th, 2008 at 10:59 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Oneperson- have you ever volunteered in the classroom or considered running for the school board? You should, as you seem to have all the answers. I’m sure with your help and guidance, this could all be fixed.
Posted October 25th, 2008 at 11:04 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Orphie,
Like many ohers I have volunteered in classrooms. So what is your point? That neither stengthens or diminsihes my positions on education reform.
Posted October 25th, 2008 at 11:10 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Just curious, that is all. I like to know, as many others do, what the experience is of people who seem to have the answers but are not willing to step up and fight. Now what about running for the school board?
Posted October 25th, 2008 at 11:51 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
There are many ways to “step up and fight”. Petiitons for the next school board elections will not be available until August 2009.
Posted October 26th, 2008 at 9:04 am Login to Send PM Report this comment
Again, I have taken responsibility for my students’ performance and work DAILY to improve my performance. I have attended 6 different courses in my first two years of teaching, went out of state for conferences and other learning oportunities and am working on my masters. I have spent far more time “improving” myself and craft than you have oneperson. I feel that is a safe bet. So it is MY classroom. Is your pay tied to performance? I venture to say that it isn’t.
I don’t want your pity and never asked for it. I just instructed you to evaluate who it is you are attacking. We are not a selfish group, we are more on the altruistic side than most anyone. We have not failed for lack of trying.
As an actual teacher-I have sit through dozens of meeting with all sorts of data presented, including AYP data. And I’m telling you that 3 middle schools and one high school meet that every year. 3 middle schools and 1 high school are far from that every year(even if you adjust for soc/econ. Does that mean I teach far better than my compatriots? No, I have been in their classrooms and there are dynamic and inspiring teachers in every building.
The good techers wouldn’t move because it would be easier-they would move because of your formula that would siphon off half of their income. We are altruistic and all, but we have to feed our families.
Another point…Scores have been droping nation wide every year since they began to tally them(decades ago). What has changed? That should be your focus. Is it the teachers? Have we grown so bad over the last 20-30 years? NO. I come from a family of teachers(a family joke is that we can trace our line to socrates) and we marvel at how much more is required of a teacher today. In the past teachers were on an island-they ran their class like a foreign country and no other teachers ever bothered to come in and visit. They didn’t talk about teaching strategies-just football, kids, or the weather. They didn’t have professional development opportunities to hone their craft or conferences to get together and share ideas and new strategies. They didn’t sit around an look at data(AYP, NWEA, CSAP, soc/econ, etc….). They weren’t required to improve their education as they worked. They were given a classroom and then left almost alone for the next 30 years. Since then, I believe that teaching practices have improved by leaps and bounds. We have been doing research into brain development, combing through data to find weaknesses and strenghts, taking courses to improve our understanding, meeting daily with our fellow teachers, spending our free time daily on a variety of afterschool help programs, etc…. You are looking in the wrong spot if you think the failure we are experiencing today is all teacher centered. I always think that I can improve-but that isn’t where I would hang all our failures on. I have already ranted too long and need to to go church now-I’ll come back to educate on what I think is the problem.
Posted October 26th, 2008 at 7:19 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
“I have spent far more time “improving” myself and craft than you have oneperson. I feel that is a safe bet.” Well, if you used as much logic in making this statement as in patting yourself on the back for your efforts to improve, I have little doubt how successful those efforts have been.
Unless your suffer some sort of negative consequence for the nonproficient students in your class — reduction in pay, reduction in seniority, specific required continuing education for specific areas where your students are nonproficient, required particpation in classes with 3expert teachers to demonstrate how to correct your demonstrated weaknesses, or similar interventions, then you are simply using your classroom and it is only the students who suffer the consequences. The scores 5th graders get on standardized test will at best remain the same in future years, in some subject they will decline, in no subject will they increase. The nonproficient student in your class is condemned to that status through 10th grade.
US student proficiency is falling behind dozens of countries and more every year. Your predecessors in the profroession always told eveyone they were doing a great job of educating kids. Low and behold, whenn standardized testing came along the data became available for everyone to see. The previous “opinion” was replaced by fact — dismal performance across the board, disasterous performance in math and science. The public has learned the truth and no longer trust educators when they speak and promise, and education only has itself to blame. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. The fooling is coming to an end. Educators only have themselves to blame for their loss of believability.
The simple fact is that for all the educational speak about “improvements”, in fact there have been NONE. Student performance has remained flat or falen for over a decade. Those are the facts.
Posted October 26th, 2008 at 8:09 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
OP- what other facts are there? Answer these:
1.) How many non English speaking students have entered Dist. 51 in the last decade?
2.) How many non-curricular issues have teachers been assigned to teach in the last decade?
3.) Why is Colorado ranked 49 out of 50 for high school droputs?
And finally, answer this: if you had an employee who could not speak nor read English, did not show up to work somtimes, was rarely if ever prepared to do the job, didn’t care about the job, but it was up to you to make sure they performed their job at a high level, how would you handle this employee? And you can’t fire him/her. You must get this employee proficient. No excuses. What’s your plan?
Posted October 27th, 2008 at 6:27 am Login to Send PM Report this comment
Well said Orpheus. Your last description speaks to the real problem. Teachers have been furiously trying to improve on their own accord-not because of cynics like one person are classroom quarterbacking from the comfort of their couches. As teachers have been improving(as any long time teacher and they will assure you that far more is required of them now than ever before), scores have been dropping. Contrary to OnePersons’ claims that only now are scores available-they have been. CSAP is new, standardized test taking is not. I think even one person states that they have been dropping for ages. ACT/SAT have shown decline for years and they used to test ITBS when I was in grade school as well. We as teachers try and try to improve our craft(I KNOW that I have) and meanwhile the student performance keeps slipping. Might not just be the teachers….but that is me just trying to use logic, sorry one person.
What has changes then? What has deteriorated? It is the entire culture of this country. Our students come to us with a disdain for education and doing anything that isn’t “fun”(meaning non-instructional). The students think of school as a obligation and not a privilige. As jail and not an advancer of one’s future. Parents are excedingly less involved and more often than not side with their student any time a teacher expresses concerns. Parents seem to think of us as very cheap baby sitters and treat us as such. Their kids are no longer their problem once they are dropped off at the curb. We seem to think these days that we are entitled to a great and prosperous future and that we don’t have to fight for it anymore. Parents tell them “you can get by without math or science or history.” I get emails from parents that tell me that there shouldn’t be any homework because there is a football game that week! More and more students come from single parent families-and every single study suggest how detrimental that can be. More and more have joined their 3 or 4th school by the time they get to me and the lack on continuity hurts greatly. More and more students come from families that don’t read at home…ever. This is a wide sweeping generalization, but it is becoming reality quickly. We seem to receive a worse and worse product each year and are expected to produce a greater and greater product. That doesn’t seem right one person-doesn’t seem possible. That isn’t to say we aren’t still trying with all our hearts, with or without your “incentives”. And it is beside the point of this original post. You say that we shouldn’t get more funding until we improve. As overcrowded increases and the problems I listed earlier increase-that will never happen. We will have students piled on top of other students and just going back to babysitting your kids for you. If you would like to donate some playtoys and diapers we would appretiate it. If not, if you really want to help, gives us the room to actually have a classroom(i didn’t for two years) for all teachers. Gives us the room to grow, we are doing so whether this bond passes or not. Give us the room to keep the student teacher ratio under 30:1.
Moreover-I can recommend some college teaching programs for you to gain you licensure if you are so concerned one person.
Posted October 27th, 2008 at 12:05 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Orphie,
1. 2001 ESL: 3.8% Total ESL: 754 Total Student Count: 20040
2002 ESL: 3.8% Total ESL: 770 Total Student Count: 20084
2003 ESL: 2.7% Total ESL: 541 Total Student Count: 20187
2004 ESL: 2.8% Total ESL: 566 Total Student Count: 20136
2005 ESL: 3.4% Total ESL: 700 Total Student Count: 20578
2006 ESL: 3.7% Total ESL: 773 Total Student Count: 21173
2007 ESL: 3.9% Total ESL: 832 Total Student Count: 21325
I won’t ask why you would be so concerned about such a small number of students when the largest % of the 30% dropout rate is non-minority English-speaking males.
Side note: 2001 to 2007 Student Count increase 1285 - one small high school, two to three middle schools, or 3 to 4 elementary schools. Remember those numbers when you hear “over capacity”.
2. By definition, if a teacher is assigned to teach something, it becomes a curricular issue. Assigning something for teachers to teach means little, the standards that are supposed to be taught were assigned over a decade ago and the tests show how well they have been taught.
3. Colorado ranks 49 out of 50 for high school dropouts because according to whatever data you cite, there is only on state with a higher dropout rate than Colorado.
Finally, I would establish a district that believed and acted upon the belief that all students could learn to the same high level regardless of their demographic background. Then I would work to make sure that the District:
- Generated, directed, and maintained focus soley on educational excellence
- Developed and aligned curriculum and delivering instruction
- Built and supported capacity in people to contribute and lead
- Acquired, allocated, and aligned fiscal, human, and material resources to support educational excellence
- Collected, interpreted, and used data and monitored results
- Supervised, evaluated, and held people accountable
- Refocused energies, refined efforts, and ensured continuous performance
- Created and nurtured alliances
If that happened, #3 would no longer be true no matter what source of data you used.
Posted October 27th, 2008 at 2:48 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Wow, One person just described our current district philosophy. I’m glad we have such a superfan.
“Finally, I would establish……” That is almost our exact moto!
Everything except the fire teachers when their students don’t ace the test.
We have gotten off track drastically-the thread is about whether or not we should fund new buildings. Every stat shows that performance drops off drastically as the number of kids in classes goes beyond 26-30. We are at 32 at some schools now. Vote no and you will have 35-40 in the next couple years. Even with one person’s expert advise(expertise gained from ….?), we would have an even greater challenge before us. We are already one of the lowest funded districts in one of the lowest funded states in the union. We consider it a challenge to do much with little, but there is a limit to this people. This isn’t even a csap or performance thing in the long run, it is a simple equation of where do the kids go? No more desks or rooms left-we have even filled the broom closets. They have taken the 9th grade out of FMHS as a bandaid just to be able to fit the other 3 grades there. Most middle schools have an array of mobile trailers as overflow. During my first year at GJHS I didn’t even have my own classroom. I had to pack up all my books, supplies, lessons, etc… and move to another corner of campus to teach my next class in a room that had a planning period. Picture doing tearing down, packing up, darting to class and sitting up in 4 minutes. Picture 1500 kids in the way while doing that. then repeat that 5-7 times daily. Picture never being able to put instructional aids or example papers on the wall,picture never being able have something written on the board BEFORE the kids came in, picture having to beg to use another computer and having to use a bench outside to grade papers. There are around 10 such teachers at many buildings right now. Then “one person” fires him/her because their students didn’t improve on a test. How is this going to improve our schools? How one person? How are you going found a district in your LaLa land without buildings? How many kids would be in each of your ideal classrooms? I am going to guess that you wouldn’t have 40.
Thank you for your yes vote on 3A an 3B.
(still want that college teaching program info one person?, want me to go into anymore detail why tying income to CSAP is rediculous?)
Posted October 27th, 2008 at 3:19 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
“Wow, One person just described our current district philosophy”
Bam Brandon, right into the trap. There is a tremendous difference between “philosophies” and results. Even if you beleive D51 honestly believes that all students can learn to the same high level, and I and many others would argue strongly that the district at best mouths those words, beliefs in educational equity, no matter how powerful or how compelling, make little difference in the absence of practices that translate those beliefs into day-to-day reality.
There are districts with far more kids with far more challenges that have under gone marked, across the board and long lasting improvement without massive infusions of new buildings. The physical plant makes far less impact than the emotional impact of the propers beliefs supported by the proper practices.
Tying employee pay to performance is the hallmark of any high performing organization because pay is one of the primary motivating factors when proviidng incentives for adults to change their practices in any organization. Education is no different.
Posted October 27th, 2008 at 4:00 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
I fell into no trap.
I went through all my public education in D51 and had a great time, became inspired, received national recongnition, and look back on my time with fondness. I am currently teaching in the district and am proud to work with a fantastic administrator, amazing metor teacher, and an enthusiastic staff of professionals. We pay no mere lip service-every student every day baby. I can not argue with a person with little to no outside experience it what actually happens in the classroom and calls me a lier.
I could write a 40 page dissertation on the efforts we have and the flaws in your performance pay pipe dream. But I don’t have the time-I’m employed. I’m off for the day but have a pile of papers to grade and plans to right for tomorrow. Then I will roll around on my pile of tax payer cash. I’m booked solid. But I’ll summarize for you….
You get what you pay for-if you pay for experience, leadership, and extra education- you get it. (our current policy)
If you pay for grades, they will be altered. If you pay for graduation, you will get easier grad rates. If you pay for standardized test grades-you will have teachers prepare all year for one standard test and let everything not tested that year fall off. If you pay people extra for selling mortgages, they sell to more unqualified people(we know how this works out).
If you pay for higher math and reading scores-how do you pay orchestra, band, PE, Soc/stud/ science, tech ed, art, etc….. classes? they are tested?
How do you make this reliable when CSAP varies in difficulty each year. (last year there were 22 advanced(hard), and 8 partially proficient(easy) questions. The year before almost the complete opposite.)I would get a bonus every other year under your plan, and because of no particular change at all! Yeah!
If you pay for grades, they will be altered. If you pay for graduation, you will get easier grad rates. If you pay people for selling mortgages, they sell to more unqualified people(we know how this works out).
How do you address the diffence in leveled classes? One teacher gets most of the advanced students that have been improving every year regardless of who teaches and the other teacher get struggling students who have struggled regardless. One teacher will be making 200k and the other making 10k no matter how they teach.
Name the district with average attendance of 35+ that has sustained and growth in performance. Name a school district less funded than us with better performance. You are generalizing and obfuscating the truth. I agree that buildings aren’t the number one factor-but you must admit that 35 per class with traveling teachers is NOT ideal. Why add to our challenge? Isn’t this hard enough?
Give us the rooms to put our your kids(or we will start stacking them) and then you can work on whatever hair brained reform you want one person. This isn’t a new program or a raise for teachers-this is a pragmatic appeal for more enough desks and space to put kids. We aren’t even asking for technology or text, just a place to put the kids. Walk through a school and look for extra desks, chairs, rooms, or space to walk in the hall and you won’t find it. Picture this two years from now, then picture it 5-10 years from now.
Education IS different. We aren’t in this for the money. When money motivates, we quit and get another job. I at one point would have been on your side oneperson-I even wrote a paper supporting pay incentives in college. I was passionate and just knew that I would be making 100k with this in no time. One thing changed-I became a teacher and found all the gaping holes in the theory. Don’t you hate it when facts get in the way? Junk CSAP, allow us to create a reliable test and we can start talking about your program. Even then it has problems-all we would do is teach to the test. Standardized tests are our job afterall. Our overall product would decline greatly, even if our scores increased.
Your proposal is a future ballot topic, not a current one. In the meantime, we need a place to baby sit your kids.
And I’ll ask again-you interested in showing us how its done-or just complaining from the sidelines. Money where your mouth is? Mine is.
Posted October 27th, 2008 at 4:04 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
I noticed several typos in that rant-sorry I was on a roll. Just thought I would sneak this in before oneperson condescendingly berates me and blames all the district’s failures on my spelling.
You know you were to. haha.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.