{"id":1924,"date":"2011-10-06T15:52:10","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T19:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=1924"},"modified":"2011-10-06T15:52:10","modified_gmt":"2011-10-06T19:52:10","slug":"gaming-the-merit-pay-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2011\/10\/06\/gaming-the-merit-pay-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaming the Merit Pay System"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_759\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Teachers protest budget cuts and Senate bill 736 -- now law -- in Miami in March.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2011\/08\/1097501081.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-759\" title=\"Activists Rally In Support Of Labor Unions' Rights\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2011\/08\/1097501081-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2011\/08\/1097501081-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2011\/08\/1097501081-220x146.jpg 220w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2011\/08\/1097501081.jpg 594w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Joe Raedle \/ Getty News Images<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teachers protest budget cuts and Senate bill 736 -- now law -- in Miami in March.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Teacher <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/tag\/merit-pay\/\">merit pay <\/a>systems need less objectivity and more accountability if they are to work, argues an economist at the libertarian-leaning <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cato.org\/\">Cato Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Rating and paying teachers based on student test scores is unlikely to improve teachers, <a href=\"http:\/\/news.heartland.org\/newspaper-article\/2011\/10\/06\/economic-weakness-merit-pay-teachers\">writes Arnold Kling<\/a>. It is easier to &#8220;game&#8221; the system if it is based on a simple formula, Kling wrote.<\/p>\n<p>A new <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/tag\/senate-bill-736\/\">Florida law<\/a> requires school districts to evaluate teachers and pay educators based on their performance. Half a teacher&#8217;s evaluation hinges on student <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/tag\/fcat\/\">Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test<\/a> scores.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;People closest to the teacher, including peers, principals, and parents, have more information about teacher quality than what can be obtained by remote administrators relying on test scores,&#8221; Kling writes.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>He proposes a three-point alternative:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Teacher compensation should be determined by their supervisors, the principals. An important factor should be customer satisfaction, as measured by parent evaluations.<\/p>\n<p>2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cCustomer satisfaction\u201d should not be purchased by lenient grading. Accordingly, third-party evaluation of students would check the teacher&#8217;s own evaluations. That is, third parties should create and grade at least some tests. However, those tests should be tailored to the teacher&#8217;s curriculum and course objectives, rather than the other way around.<\/p>\n<p>3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Parent satisfaction should be measured by their decisions regarding teachers. The ultimate sign that parents value a teacher is when parents try to have their children placed with that teacher. Conversely, when parents seek to avoid a teacher, it indicates customer dissatisfaction.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What&#8217;s your reaction? Do you think current merit pay plans will work? Is Kling&#8217;s idea any better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Teacher merit pay systems need less objectivity and more accountability if they are to work, argues an economist at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute. Rating and paying teachers based on student test scores is unlikely to improve teachers, writes Arnold Kling. It is easier to &#8220;game&#8221; the system if it is based on a simple formula, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[1035,1007,90],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1928,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions\/1928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}