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[quote=Anonymous]Regarding merit pay--I work in a high FARMS school and my friend works in a school with a very affluent population. We both teach the same grade. I plan for and instruct 6 reading groups in my class ranging from 3 years below grade level to 1 year above grade level. She plans for 3 reading groups and the lowest group is on grade level. Small group instruction in math has a similar breakdown.

I provide and document interventions for all of my students who are performing below grade level. I advocate for my students who are not responding to interventions to go to EMT and screening meetings, but often find the process stalled because the parents don't respond to meeting requests or say they'll come but don't show up.

I work with students during my lunchtime and run after school clubs (unpaid). I use my own money to pay for supplies and materials outside of the small amount that the school provides us with. When students come to school without supplies--I provide the supplies.  We are also asked to contribute to school-wide activities like family breakfasts and raffle prizes out of our own pockets. My friend is provided with hundreds of dollars from the PTA in addition to the money the school budget provides, and they get all the books on their wishlist from the book fair.

The field trips we go on are local, and one of the most important factors in deciding where to go is cost. Many families are not able to pay $5 or $10 for a field trip. Field trips are great opportunities to build background knowledge for many concepts that the curriculum writers assume that all students have. My friend's school goes on field trips to interesting places outside of the county in which we live because they have parents who will pay the cost of the buses. Many students are experiencing these places for the second or third time because they have already been with their families.

All of this may sound like sour grapes, but I truly enjoy working at my school and subjectively and objectively I'm good at what I do. But our data and test scores are not even close to my friend's school. We teach from the same curriculum, but it's apples and oranges. My district doesn't care about progress. They don't care that my lowest students made 1 and a half years worth of growth last year. They are still below grade level and their scores are in the red zone. So ultimately I'm a failure in the district's eyes.

So if merit pay comes to my district I'm going to have to hightail it out of there and into a school where students meet and exceed proficiency just by coming to school and doing the work assigned.  Because as much as I feel like I can make a difference where I am, if they start paying my friend more than they pay me because her students score higher on tests then it's messing with my ability to provide for my family, which is ultimately more important to me. It would be difficult to keep good teachers in schools with high FARMS populations.

Kids are not just data points, as much as the education bigwigs and politicians (and even building level administrators) would like to have us believe.

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