[etni] Re: Merit Pay
- From: Lev Abramov <lev.abramov@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: drh16@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:17:54 +0200
But this is exactly what has happened - has been happening :) - to the
English teaching over the past 20 years. Instead of teaching the
language, teachers tend to teach towards bagrut more and more. this
inevitably shifts their teaching from aiming at the mastery of the
language towards raising mediocre students with good test-taking
skills. Who can be blamed but the system?!
And, of course, you are right in your prediction: merit will be
determined fairly - but fairness will be applied the way the school
administration sees fit.
Lev
On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 2:04 AM, David R. Herz <drh16@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> This would be an unmitigated disaster, and is as bad in theory as it would
> be in practice. Merit pay will always be attached to some measure, which
> will always be established by someone outside the classroom, which will
> increase stress levels and orient teaching in various unwanted directions.
> What most people want of an educational system are things that are very
> difficult to measure. Let's take active engagement and ownership of the
> material - let's take Laurie Orenstein and poetry - as an example. As Ms.
> Widerker related, her child engaged in spontaneous poetry writing. Others
> might read more. Others might just engage with what they read differently
> or more actively. Do any of you think that "active engagement and ownership
> of the material" would be a basis for merit pay? What will be a basis are
> things than are easy to measure, think vocabularies and certain grammatical
> structures, which students can master without taking the context - the
> actual ability to powerfully use a language - into account. As a result,
> teachers will turn their attention from what really matters to those things
> that are rewarded, the irony being that if they do engage in what I say
> really matters, those skills that are rewarded will advance at a much
> greater pace, but the pressure will be on spending time drilling on the
> things that will be tested.
>
>
> What is needed is a fair competitive compensation package so that there are
> always people willing to take on teaching as a profession, a solid structure
> for support and improvement, and a fair manner to remove teachers who are
> not working out.
>
>
>
> Yours truly,
>
>
>
> David R. Herz
>
> drherz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> www.educatingisrael.com
>
> Bet Rimon
>
> 052-579-1859
>
>
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