We can’t just pay teachers based on student performance.

My father-in-law, who’s been in the school system for three years and 20+ before that in local politics in the Sheriff’s office really set me straight about paying teachers just for performance. I think I might have sent the wrong impression earlier today when I naively tweeted:

NPR this morning: Charlotte-Mecklenburg school teachers to be paid on performance rather than seniority and credentials. Shouldn’t we all?

I apologize. I was just asking a question. I think some might have attributed sarcasm into it. Rereading it now I see how some think I’m just agreeing without understanding. I was really wanting to know. I think I know a little more now, which, of course, I have to pass on to help others from being duped into thinking it is that simple.

Here’s the deal, most of the working world is paid to some degree based on performance, even when you have no direct control over those whose performance determines your performance. This is why I so respect the challenge managers and anyone, frankly, with responsibility over the performance of others including teachers.

Teachers have it worse than all of them. They have far more students than the average manager has employees to manage, get paid less than half what a manager does, and have less control and ways to provide motivation, plus students are young, often disrespectful and rude, far more than the average employee, I’d generalize.

Another real danger that I fear in paying just for performance is having real issues swept over as they are pushed through the system for the sake of performance, “See he’s doing great,” even though he still can’t write his name legibly or whatever.

Then there is the matter of measuring performance. I sucked at tests, but managed well. The assessment tools may be all there is, but they will always be imperfect measures of true workplace performance.

So is the answer to only pay teachers based on their seniority and credentials? Well if you had to pick one, yes I suppose.  I see now why paying teachers for seniority and credentials does right by them more than for the performance of their students given the hopeless restrictions and broken system the teachers are forced to work with and the unconcerned parents they often have to deal with.

However, just paying teachers to show up and paying those that show up the longest and spend the most time learning things and getting degrees rather than actually teaching kids is also a danger, less of a danger I realize because the more I meet teachers the more I realize most of them are doing far more than that. In fact, the reverse problem is true, good teachers burn out. Still, there have to be a few that lose focus, like the one or two professors I knew that hated and tolerated students who got in the way of their research. But clearly they are much more the exception than the rule–especially in the k-12 crowd.

The best solution seems, to this naive parent, to be something in between though I have no idea what it would look like. I realize I have no business poking my big nose into how teachers are paid, or anyone else for that matter. I was just commenting on something that seems to make sense, and therein lies the worst part of it all. A newly elected official in the school district is saying something that many, like me, will see as being common sense when there is so much more involved. I stand corrected. Thanks for your patience.

This phenomenon of joining a public lear …

This phenomenon of joining a public learning network and soon seeking greener grass is not limited to education, innovators always face frustration. Connecting and learning just often transforms us, if not just reminds us, that we are innovators not content with status-quo.

Without the support of like-minded people, which I would never have had without virtual worlds and web 2.0, I would literally have gone crazy in my pay-the-bills position.

Ironically, however, having this outlet has helped me stay content even happy in my current position since I realize it neither defines nor restricts me any longer. Connecting this way provides a new outlet for personal passion and innovation in spite of the wet blankets and ignorance all around.