Bend Weekly Community Forums

[Cathy]

didn't know where else to put this. Houston, TX is trying an experiment. Incentive pay up to $3k for teachers if their students excel on the state (or federal, I'm not sure who mandates it) tests.
What do you think? Wasn't there already trouble with a school district right there at home when the children showed marked improvement in the test scores? A teacher who wasn't receiving a direct bonus and was accused of giving answers via body language or hand signals?
Just curious, and am interested in if you think the "bonus" will give teachers incentive to work more closely with the students or not.
Cathy

[Medium]

In my opinion this is absolutely an invitation for corruption. The way to do something like this is not to announce it, don't even tell spouses, friends, etc and only pay incentives AFTER the students excel. However, how do you really inspire teachers to get the results without dangling a carrot like this?

Tough question, pros and cons of each approach.

[Priceless]

Good point, however, i dont think there are many teachers who would take advantage of that and purposely cheat. a good teacher would not have a problem re-teaching a previous subject if only a few of the children understood. threaten a pay decrease and then expect corruption

[JoeRiley]