Comments about ‘Idaho is laboratory of teacher pay plans’

I don't see how student attendance should be on a teacher. I know a lot of teachers who are good who get the hard students in school. Why should they be punished for working harder on the more difficult kids? To make it equal, each teacher would need to get the same amount of gifted, special ed, and English language learners. Good luck with that one. If teacher bonus is tied to test scores, they are going to steer clear of tougher to handle kids. It will be a discredit to those types of kids. Also, I believe teachers are all in it for a paycheck. I don't think they would like to explain to their hungry kids that they need to go hungry, but mom or dad is teaching for the love of it. If society makes it a burden to be a teacher the quality will go down. Who is going to go to 6 years of school to be a biology teacher when a dentist is only a couple more?

Dumb idea. PEER REVIEW (and Principal review) would be much better than PARENT REVIEW.

Some parents whine about great teachers.

It'll become leverage for GRADE MANIPULATION. It currently happens in state universities here in Utah.

While I agree that contacting the parents and keeping them informed about and engaged in their child's education is important, I believe there is a basic flaw in how they require 40% of the parents to attend parent-teacher conference in order for the teacher to be eligible for a bonus. What do you expect the teacher to do to achieve this? Should the teachers offer rides to all the parents so they can make it? The teacher can offer incentives for parents to attend, but they are dependent on somebody else doing something to be rewarded.

Most good teachers are already in constant contact with the parents of their students. I know of teachers who maintain up-to-date website which include blogs that offer additional instruction on their assignments. They send home monthly notes to inform parents of the big projects and important due dates. They even send postcards to inform the students and parents of good things that are happening at school.

The sad part, however, is many times the letters don't get to the parents. Phone calls are often not answered. Emails are ignored, and visits aren't made to the teachers' websites.

More hoops through which to jump. Brilliant!

Teachers already have to find extra work to supplement their meager incomes. Good people are leaving the system more and more for private industry when they can. Do you have a student in your family? How valuable are they to you? How valuable then are those who teach them all day long in your behalf? Teacher compensation should *always* reflect how we value the *students*. In an era where pay raises are non-existent, and teachers have to purchase most of their own supplies, to tie their pay increases to additional hoops (many of which they can not control) is beyond ridiculous and frankly insulting to the years of diligence they have already demonstrated.

I have met several teachers this year who used to teach in Idaho and have moved here to get away from these new programs. They claim Idaho is trying these things to look good but have no data to back any of them up so they left the state to teach elsewhere. Their feelings tend to be that Idaho is going to have a huge teacher shortage in just a few years due to all these "reforms." But Utah will surely follow Idaho's lead and create an environment where no one wants to be a teacher- like no tenure, no pension, merit pay based on parents, etc.

I don't know many here in Idaho who are in favor of the changes that have taken place. The State Superintendent Luna is not and never has been an educator. He proposed these changes and the legislature approved them. There was a big petition gathering... but we failed to get enough signatures in the appropriate amount of time to force this to go to a ballot for popular vote. This was a very controversial thing that has occurred. As a parent, I'm not in favor of the changes made. Too many GOOD teachers retired or moved out of state because of the changes made and many others are looking for teaching employment in other states because of the changes made. Chasing away the best teachers isn't the way to educate our children.

The republican legislature, Supt. Luna, and Gov. Otter strong-armed this legislation through despite the outcries of the people. Most Idahoans I have talked to think this is a bad idea, and I personally can hardly wait until the referendum goes through.

I admire and respect teachers. Let's give them what they deserve.

It will just add more politics to teaching. It won't improve it at all.

Kids are less likely to skip class if teachers are on top of their game. Period. Having been one, I know this to be a fact. The Washington Times ran an article January 29, 2008 that detailed a study in favor of such pay and something out Vanderbilt in September 2010 dismisses performance pay without other specific supports in existence. Our knee-jerk response is exactly what is wrong with public education (and why districts bond us every few years instead of learning to live within their means, adopting unique and innovative approaches to providing education for all kids). The sad history of how teachers have been and are treated in this entitled nation of ours, but protecting subpar teachers and administrators leaves kids to fend for themselves. Our sinking proficiency scores and increasing drop out rates attest to this. While it may be imperfect, Idaho should be congratulated for taking on a tough issue. And educators who are serious about the art and science of educating will stay with it and be rewarded for the effort.

The students are part of families that pay the taxes and are stuck with the results of the school system. If the teachers are professionals they should be, like the classic professions, responsible for their product.

This program is brilliant. Peer review is the blind leading the blind.

I have never seen the school adminitrators (who, by the way, typically make about three times what a regular teacher does) put in place a "merit pay" program for themselves. Aren't they responsible for how the teachers under them perform just as a teacher is responsible for how a student performs. Lets start being fair in the assessment of schools, stop piling all the blame on overworked educators, and especially stop giving high praise to the hypocritical admins.

@DBeck, I will commend Idaho when it produces clear and compelling evidence that the changes it has adopted have resulted in significant improvements in educational outcomes. I certainly don't mind experiments, as long as they follow the scientific method. But critical, impartial analysis is typically not a strength of state legislatures.

Love the idea that parents have to be involved! It does stink to tie teacher's salary to parental involvement. However, I do see this working in Idaho, because families are so important. In our state, this would never work in a thousand years because there are too many parents who don't care about their children or their education.

A hilarious article about sharing scraps in umpteen different ways. No matter how they divide up the crumbs, they're still crumbs. Until they start paying teachers a professional salary, these absurd schemes do nothing but demoralize.

While I dont necessarily agree that parents should be able to determine teacher salary, I have long felt that one problem with public education is that parents are not seen as customers by the education establishment.

In education the desired product should be a well educated student. The parent (taxpayer) should be considered and treated as the customer. The service provider is the school with the principle provider the teacher.

As a parent I always try to get my children in classes with the best, most effective teachers. It is my responsibility to be an informed customer and look for the best. Those parents that dont care enough to find out about teachers their children may have are more likely to get left with the less effective teachers. I have found in general that administrators are amenable to teacher requests from parents if submitted in writing before the classes have been set.

School administrators on the other hand ought to recognize and reward with more pay the best teachers thereby encouraging excellence from all.

I'm so sick and tired of getting messages left on my answering machine from our local school. Honestly they call about 3 times a week. I don't really care about what dress up day is coming up. Just teach my kids. I'm happy with the teachers and their classes but they have way to much other "stuff" distracting them from learning.

Honestly so far this year there have been over 10 days where they dressed up for something. Spirit week, red ribbon week, Halloween. It's just too much.

I agree with most sentiments here, but there is still another issue: where does the money come from?

For example, Millard County School District is past due to build two new high schools, but can't get citizens to step up and approve property tax increases to help pay for them (this is my understanding, anyway). We all want teachers to get paid, but we don't want to pay them.

I use to think that Dnews was not one sided but I have become a believer. You never run stories about how the system is working correctly, only stories that show how to change it the way you want it changed; vouchers, teacher overhaul, online systems, etc.

The key issue here is with standarized test scores. If you give bonuses to those who have students with high test scores, then you have to document improvement. High performing students will always have high test scores. They could be taught by video. They do not even need teachers. The problem is with low performing students and the documentation of their increases on standardized tests. This means pretesting and establishing a "base line". It is easy to give bonuses to "friends of the administration" who are given plum assignments of teaching the better performing students.

Either Americans need to get serious about what it really takes to educate our kids which includes:

1)Teachers being treated as the professionals they are in regards to pay, benefits, pension, and those things they can and cannot control.

2)Getting rid of those teachers who cannot teach or refuse to get better at teaching.

3)Parents once again accepting some of the responsibility in the education of their children as opposed to laying it all at the teacher's feet.

4)Students and Teachers being held to a higher standard which reflects critical thinking, engagement, and performance.

5)Funding schools and providing adequate facilities for all students.

OR

America needs to admit that we no longer really care about educating our people, and live with the natural consequences of being the only modern nation in the world which does not put a premium on education.