Merit Pay

Is it possible in public education?

Currently, teachers receive stipends for "extra" duties or services they perform within a school (being an advisor for a club, managing the school's website, attending extra events or meetings that weren't required by the contract). This is the only form of merit pay that the teacher's union will allow. When I first became a teacher, I was similar to many first year teachers. I was active in just about every aspect of student life. I wanted to be a part of how the school worked, get to know the students, and just in general, be involved. I thought that if the students got to know me, and see how important I felt their experiences were, they would benefit in some way. I was right. On the whole, students respond much better to teachers who are more involved in student life, and teachers who they see as allies for their causes. Now, as a beginning teacher, I didn't feel the need to receive a stipend for every little thing I did. Granted, I tended to go a little bit overboard (hence the move into administration), but I still didn't feel like I couldn't do these activities if I wasn't receiving money based on pressure from my colleagues.

One day, when another teacher noticed that I had created my own classroom website, and was about to create a website for the school, she approached me with her grave concerns. She told me, "You'd better be getting a stipend for all this web stuff! Next thing you know, we're all going to be required to have a website, and no one's going to be paid for it."

The question remains, how can you ask teachers to do anything that is above and beyond the contract without giving them a stipend of some kind? Can you? Should you? The teacher's contract is more about minimum, not about maximum, but is so often treated as the maximum. Teachers are still paid on a salary, not by the hour, right?

Mistracking

This issue at the heart of my interest in researching tracking and its effects on the academic and personal future of students. In an ideal world, there would be the ability to easily move between tracks. A student, parent, or teacher would identify someone who is mistracked, there would be some form of verification, and the change would occur. Is anyone aware of a tracking system in which there is some mobility?

What is the bigger issue that tracking was designed to solve?

As promised, I am delving into my original brainstorm of possible research questions. The answer to this comes out of many conversations with my husband about general issues in the public education system. His basic theory is that public schools in the US are based on the idea that all students who are the same age learn at the same general pace. Not from day to day, but from year to year. His basic theory says that the US Department of Education assumes that all 7-year-olds are within a specific spectrum of learning, and all 17-year-olds are also within their own specific spectrum of learning for their age. The reason I believe the public schools operate on this assumption is simply volume. We (speaking as an educator in the public schools) need to account for the different learning styles of all of our students. The most effective way to reach the majority of students is to teach to the majority. Unfortunately, students who are at the extremes of the spectrum, whether the high or the low, do not experience schools catering to their learning pace.

Thinking about the issue with his basic theory brings a few thoughts to light

1) If you are a student in the extremes (learning pace or style), the public schools are probably not the most effective learning environment for you.

2) I am most concerned with public education, and the issues that affect the students and teachers therein.

3) In doing my research, I will most likely take out the students on the extreme extremes. I will need to find a way to determine who is at the extremes, and who will be appropriately serviced by the public schools.

Skewing the Research

Of the reading I have done so far, half of the researchers believe that tracking is an educationally sound idea, and half of the researchers are opposed to it. I am sure that I could easily ignore half of the research, and find sufficient proof of any theory. My task is to create a research question that will force me to look at all of the previous findings, and create my own valid conclusion, vaild being the operative word here. If anyone out there has any good guidelines to help me to develop a research question, feel free to share!

Narrowing Down

I'm starting to narrow down my research focus. Although I've had experience teaching students from the age of 8 to 80, I've decided that middle school is my favorite. Middle School is the place where serious tracking (note: not ability grouping) begins. It is where students begin to recognize their labels, and is the time when students begin their self-fulfilling prophecies. Much of the research that I have found so far is in conflict. This proves that the research has not yet been done in a satisfactory scientific manner. I am not interested in doing research to simply earn a degree. I'm looking to prove something. I'm looking for an outcome that can help me to convince schools to organize themselves in the most beneficial way for students. After all, that's why we're working in education, right? In the immortal words of Scooby Doo (actually, it's every villian in the Scooby Doo cartoons), "If it weren't for those dang-blasted kids!" Well, for me, those dang-blasted kids are why I'm interested in this research.



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A Good Principal

I recently read this post in The Education Wonks, and it gave me a lot to think about. I'd love to use it as a checklist for my first year as an administrator. If there are teachers reading this, feedback would be wonderful. There are 25 items listed in this post that a good administrator does (or doesn't do). What would you say are the top 5 that a first year administrator should strive towards?

Tracking, Ability Grouping, Heterogeneous vs. Homogeneous Classes

However you’d like to word the issue, it will be an on-going topic for Modern Classroom. As it is an issue that forces me to closely examine my own schooling, it is an issue that I pay close attention to as an educator. There are many questions to be asked and answered surrounding the issue of tracking. I am currently in the beginning stages of a larger scale research project, but I have not yet narrowed down a research question. The more background reading I do, the more questions I seem to have. I’d like to use this blog to flesh out some of my ideas. Below are some initial brainstorms for a final research question. They will be the main topics in future posts.

• heterogeneous vs. homogeneous classes
• define the concept and origins of tracking
• its affects on the self-image/future of the students
• possible alternatives to this popular method
• Literature review
• What are the affects on learning for the high achieving students?
• What are the affects on learning for the low achieving students?
• How effective is differentiated instruction for the students at the poles?
• Does tracking affect different ethnic groups differently?
• Does tracking affect girls differently than boys?
• How does tracking affect student social groups?
• What is the bigger issue in education that tracking was designed to solve?
• What have been other proposed solutions to this problem?
• What questions in a survey would help to determine affects of tracking in university students? In middle school students? In high school students? In adults?
• What questions in a survey to determine the general views from teachers about tracking? Middle school teachers? High school teachers? Elementary teachers? University professors?
• Choice of instructors for higher and lower level classes
• I am not initially looking to change the structure of schools, but to create a more reflective environment regarding the effects of tracking and the quality of instruction
• Quality of instruction
• Optimizing learning
• Don’t forget – I do not want to become a sociologist, or researcher of American culture. I am intending to become a researcher on the effects of a particular practice, and possible solutions and alternatives.
• I need to create a thesis topic that will ensure that I do not skew the research evidence towards my desired outcome. It is important to make sure that all evidence is looked at, and mentioned in the final literature review.
• What are some other conceptualizations of curriculum that are possible? And some that might even provide more quality and effective instruction for students of all levels?
• What type of grouping is the most flexible to allow for the most varied types of instructions and groupings within units of study
• Are heterogeneously grouped classes safe learning environments for students of all abilities?
• How do you (should you?) ensure that teachers are treating all students equally? How can you prevent teachers from labeling students?
• What level (if any) would I like to focus my research on? Experience dictates middle school, which would give me some practical knowledge, but high school tracking and elementary school ability grouping are too common of practices to ignore while doing a study on the topic
• Approaching the issue of tracking from within another issue, such as middle school vs. k-8. Is this a healthier/more effective way to get educators to discuss the issue?