Merit Pay Tied to Student Test Scores
Re “Good Teachers, Better Pay,” editorial, April 9: During my 25 years of teaching, I have seen educational panaceas come and go. Merit pay is the latest cure-all for our ailing schools. The proponents of merit pay need to remember that teaching is different than winning a ballgame or operating on the sick. What works in other sectors will not work in teaching. If teachers are going to be held accountable for students’ successes or failures, then parents must be held accountable. For our students to be successful, it will take a commitment from all segments of society.
HELAINE GILBERT
Los Angeles
* As a dedicated, enthusiastic teacher in the LAUSD who loves her job, I object to merit pay based on the Stanford 9. What about the wonderful things that happen inside the classroom? The Stanford 9 doesn’t tell you about students who begin my eighth-grade English class at a third-grade reading level and leave nine months later reading at the sixth-grade level. It will only measure how these very same students test at a grade level that far surpasses what they are capable of. If they don’t improve those Stanford 9 scores according to the state target, then I don’t get merit pay even though I’ve helped raise their reading levels tremendously.
Merit pay is divisive and punitive. My colleagues and I are hard-working, college-educated professionals who make sacrifices daily to teach our students, and we deserve compensation for what we do: higher pay and better working conditions.
KERI VERMILLION
Pacoima Middle School
North Hills
* The SAT 9 is a poorly written, questionable test. If merit pay based on students’ SAT-9 scores goes into effect, teachers will fight for the best students--the ones from stable families who are well fed, eager to learn and good readers. These are the students whose scores will improve, not because teachers need to do more to prepare them for the SAT 9, but because they will do well on any tests they take.
If people are serious about raising standards, money should go to libraries, labs, adequate materials, assistance for students in need and teacher support and salaries. Standardized tests are best used as a supplement to other measures of progress, not as a sole measure and certainly not as the basis for determining the quality of a teacher.
LAUREN SIADEK
Hawthorne
* After reading so much on the proposals to compensate teachers based on their pupils’ performance, I have come to a different conclusion. Based on the amount of time teachers and administrators have to spend on a given student for reasons including doing no homework, not being prepared, not being present and being disruptive, levy the appropriate amount back to the parents to cover the cost of this time. Maybe then priorities will return, where parents dedicate the time necessary to ensure that their children are receiving a proper education.
MICHAEL DOWNES
Tustin
* Those who support merit pay overlook the major difference between teaching and some other professions: We deal with people, not inanimate objects. In many ways we are like psychiatrists; we are working to help improve the children through their minds. Does a psychiatrist get an extra $1,000 for helping a patient make a “breakthrough” in a session? No, of course not. There are many things wrong with schools in Los Angeles and merit pay would just add to them.
JEFFREY ROSADINI
West Hollywood
* I am a teacher of 36 years’ experience in California public schools. I have a master’s degrees and have taught grades 7-12 and college. I have several specialties: SAT verbal prep, Latin and Greek in English vocabulary and the Stanford 9. I have been a presenter in workshops for teachers. I am fluent in two foreign languages.
I am against merit pay. The concept is divisive. Would I share my materials, tests and expertise (after school) with my colleagues if they were paid more? Every teacher I know did not come into the profession for monetary rewards. They became teachers because they were givers. So stop counting minutes in the classroom, extra pay for better scores and classes requiring CLAD and SADIE certificates. If you really want to help teachers, offer us workshops to share materials, experiences and knowledge.
ROBERT L. SPENCER
Westminster High School
* Re “Merit Pay Gets a Failing Grade in Our Schools,” Commentary, April 9: UTLA President Day Higuchi seems to state Howard Miller and Ramon Cortines are to blame for the Belmont Learning Complex, bungled school-repair programs and other previous fiascoes at the LAUSD. Wrong answer, Mr. Higuchi! The recent problems with the Los Angeles schools are the fault of former Supt. Ruben Zacarias and former board members, whom the citizen of Los Angeles voted out of office last year. Miller and Cortines were brought in to fix these fiascoes.
STEVEN LASH
Woodland Hills
