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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]http://www.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2009/12/21/dc-schools-chief-michelle-rhee-fights-union-over-teacher-pay

From the article:
" Chancellor Michelle Rhee is pushing innovative but contentious ideas, one of which has garnered her national attention: whether teacher pay can be tied directly to student performance."

[b]In what other industry would it be considered conentious and gain national attention if pay was tied for performance?[/quote][/b]

In what other industry is performance based on variables completely out of one's control? Do your billable hours not have enough to eat? Do they have a bed? Undiagnosed learning disabilities? Disinterested parents? A lack of background knowledge and experiences that the curriculum assumes they have? Oh, billable hours and people can't be compared? Ok, then.

Should doctors' pay be tied to the number of patients whose Type 2 diabetes they reverse? Therapists on the number of mental illnesses they cure? Dentists on the number of cavities a patient doesn't get due to their preventative education? Police officers on the number of crimes they prevent? Firefighters on the number of people who don't set their house on fire? By your logic, shouldn't their pay be tied to performance too?

As soon as other professionals who work with humans see their pay equitably tied to human performance then I'm all for it for teachers. Until then, not so much. 
[/quote]

Sure, most industries your pay is tied to performance where some factors are out of your control. For example, a person in sales has a sales quota. They have on control over their customers' budgets, which affects their ability to meet that goal. Maybe their key customers are cutting back this year, went bankrupt, etc. Yet, the sales person's performance is tied to if their customers buy.

Or think of a project manager. Their performance is judged based on if they deliver the project on time. Their ability to do that depends on all the peopel working under them, as well as many other circumstances difficult to control. Maybe a supplier of a key component is running behind; maybe government permits took longer than expected; maybe there was severe weather and that prevented certain work from taking place.

Heck, walk into most retail (chain) stores at the mall, and ask if the head office has given them a sales goal for that day. I guarantee you they have. Can they control how many people come into the mall today and buy? Not entirely -- the weather is kind of cold and dreary today, so I bet mall attendance is lower than on a sunny December day. Yet, they'll be held accountable for meeting that quota, even if it's more difficult than usual.

Bottom line is that just about every job has performance goals, and meeting those usually depends on many factors not in direct control of that person. Why can't teachers be held accountable in the same situation as just about every other job?[/quote]

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