A very dependable and AWESOME TKC TIPSTER provides a DETAILED LOOK at the new incentive plan underway at The Kansas City, Missouri School District.
The AWESOME TIPSTER notes, "Looks like the KCMO district is joining nationwide trend (and debate) in offering performance incentives to teachers."
It's a controversial move and a great many folks in The Teacher's Union don't like it because some of it, in essence, voids their contract.
I'm not sure if busting collective bargaining agreements will improve classroom performance.
Check the details provided by AN AWESOME TKC TIPSTER and judge for yourself. Check it:
Incentive Program for Teachers at Central High School
The Teacher Incentive Plan will provide a monetary award during the 2010-11 school year to teachers at Central High School for improved student performance, enhanced cooperation and collegiality, and the promotion of positive school and community relations.
This incentive will be awarded to Central High School teachers demonstrating and documenting high student achievement and high percentages of students performing at or above grade level in content areas (Math, Science, English/Language Arts/Social Studies) during SY 2010-11.
Eligibility:
* Appropriately certified full time teachers, including those working in special areas;
* Appropriately certified teachers working less than a full contract will be eligible to participate on a pro-rata basis in that year’s plan;
* Appropriately certified part time teachers will be compensated on a pro rata basis determined by the FTE% of their teaching contract.
Prerequisites:
Each SY 10-11 Central High School teacher will set goals for individual students and classes to improve student performance and achievement. Student benefits should be clearly stated in the goals and objectives of the classroom improvement plan and measured by selected assessments, including the following:
* Goals should be aligned to district and school level professional development.
* Goals are teacher designed, student focused, linked to school and/or district objectives and reflect the district’s core values:
* Goals/Objectives show significant (20-30%)incremental gains over a given period of time (during the school year) and should be approved by a committee of district level personnel, to include Principal Linda Collins, Dr. Prince and/or Dr. Esselman.
* The goals, objectives and assessments should be selected so the amount of student growth can be demonstrated and documented. Demonstration/Documentation must be specific (concrete, detailed, well defined), measureable (numbers, quantity, comparison), achievable (feasible, actionable), realistic (considering resources), and time-bound (a defined time line).
* The benefits to students from the school improvement plan should be a direct result of the activities chosen.
Plans must be made available for public viewing and shared with various stakeholders.
Supplemental Criteria:
* Demonstration of ongoing initiative, commitment, personalization, professionalism and involvement in other activities that directly result in improved student performance, and/or;
* Assignment in a subject area is historically hard to staff or has had a high turnover.
Incentive Compensation:
* Mathematics, Science, Exceptional Education and Foreign Language teachers will receive a stipend of $5,000 to be divided into two payments issued after the close of each semester during SY 10-11 after successful demonstration of improved student achievement and approval from the reviewing committee.
* Communication Arts teachers will receive a stipend of $3,000 to be divided into two payments issued after the close of each semester during SY 10-11 after successful demonstration of improved student achievement and approval from the reviewing committee.
* All other teachers will receive a stipend of $2,000 to be divided into two payments issued after the close of each semester during SY 10-11 after successful demonstration of improved student achievement and approval from the reviewing committee.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES AT CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, PLEASE APPLY VIA THE DISTRICT WEBSITE (www.kcmsd.net). YOU MUST SIGN IN AS AN INTERNAL CANDIDATE TO VIEW THE POSITION. PLEASE UPLOAD YOUR RESUME.
THE PRINCIPAL AND/OR INTERVIEWING PANEL WILL CONTACT YOU DIRECTLY IF YOU ARE SELECTED TO INTERVIEW FOR THE REMAINING TEACHING VACANCIES AT CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL.
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Photobabe: Keely Hazell
Keep it up Covington!
ReplyDeleteHow about a monetary reward like getting a paycheck...hmmm?
ReplyDeleteA bonus? sure, why not. Bonuses went to the fuckers who collapsed our economy, why not to teachers who actually teach?
ReplyDeleteGood point toadstool.
ReplyDeleteFire them all and re-hire them with the incentive plan.
ReplyDeleteIt can be done. The courts will support it.
Yeah, it'll work with every skool but the Afrikan Centered Education Campus.
ReplyDeleteThe Board won't hold them accountable.
'Are we in an era of National Stupidity?'
ReplyDeleteThe evidence continues to accumulate that our "accountability" policies are a great fraud and hoax, but our elected officials and policymakers remain completely oblivious to the harm caused by the policies they mandate.
Over the past several years, efforts to "hold teachers accountable" and "hold schools accountable" have produced perverse consequences. Instead of better education, we are getting cheating scandals, teaching to bad tests, a narrowed curriculum, lowered standards, and gaming of the system. Even if it produces higher test scores (of dubious validity), high-stakes accountability does not produce better education.
Merit pay has been tried and found ineffective again and again since the 1920s, but repeated failure never discourages its advocates, who are certain that if the incentives were larger, or if some other element was adjusted, it would surely work. We hear that about every failed experiment. If only we had done it differently....
More emphasis on test scores. More money for teachers if the scores go up. More punishment for teachers and schools if the scores don’t go up. More cheating. More gaming the system. More concentration on basic skills (they count) and more indifference to the arts, history, science, foreign languages, etc. (they don’t count).
Are we in an era of National Stupidity or National Insanity? Or is this what happens when educators imagine they are thinking like corporate executives?
If it is the latter, I recommend that they read the writings of W. Edwards Deming, the management guru, who steadfastly opposed merit pay because it destroys collaboration and teamwork, undermines long-range planning, and incentivizes the wrong behavior.
If it is the former, well, we will just have to ride out this terrible era and hope that wiser heads someday prevail.
Why is Afrikan spelled with a "k" at the Afrikan centered school? What language is that?
ReplyDeletethis should not be an incentive program, this should be a "keep your job" program. The scores and grad rates at Central are so low we might as well close the school and save money. But these kids CAN learn if the school, teachers, principal, district and parents did their jobs. Give it a chance. Maybe they will start acting professionally and the kids will benefit.
ReplyDeletethrow out score bases assessments and let's do "job ready" based assessments... reality people....test scores DO not mean shit in the real world of urban KC culture, but holding a job = life....
ReplyDeleteAccountability can't be measured until there are clear and measurable assessments. At present, there are too many variables, and nothing could possibly be legally binding. As a matter of fact, if one teacher made improvements and received a bonus, and others didn't (and did not), then I believe there are serious grounds for a class action law suit. As a matter of fact, I'm surprised that the students and parents haven't filed a class action lawsuit, based on the last thirty years' requirement in state and federal laws that all objectives be clear and measurable. The NCLB required it, then did just the opposite, by allowing ambiguous "standards" which created the huge mess that we're in today.
ReplyDeleteFor example, imagine that you tell two people: build me a house. You don't give any requisites, no plans, no blueprints. So we each build you a house. Then, you look at one and say, oh, I like that one. And no, I don't like that one.
Or say that a football team is told to go play a game and win it, but they can't practice until championship game itself.
Or I teach you how to bake pies, but then test you on how well you can cook a turkey.
At present, if a child is from a certain socio-economic status, they will do well on the assessment tests. If they aren't, they won't. The ONLY thing that has been proven to obviate the SES factor is criterion-referenced assessment. At present, the KCMSD is sitting on a memorandum of understanding from the state, which would eventually give every single child in the state of Missouri the advantage of being well-prepared to take the end-of-year and end-of-course assessments.
No bonus is going to replace the punishing work of doing this curriculum and assessment. I'll be happy to discuss this with any interested party.
Nancy Merrill Sayed
nsayed6266@aol.com