Teach Your Children Well
Both Kerre Woodham and The HOS editor comment on Professor John Hattie’s study that reveals that the only thing that really matters in education is the skill of the teacher – everything else comes a very poor second. Both Woodham and the Editor observe that this has the strong implication that teachers should be paid on performance. Anne Tolley’s comments on the matter indicate that National would probably be thinking along the same lines.
It comes as no surprise that the teachers union is very unhappy about the idea. This is, of course, not because this would adversely effect pupils or good teachers, but because this would reduce their power base. This is what one union leader meant by saying that performance-related pay would be “extraordinarily problematic”.
I suspect that educationalists, when they get back from their holidays, will also be dead against performance-based pay, but for an entirely different reason. I think they will not like it because it implied that external object assessments will become much more important than internal assessments. After all, you cannot use something that is set solely by the teacher, if the teacher’s pay is determined by it. Such a system is open to wide abuse.
Educationalists love internal assessments because they have an ideological antipathy towards competitive results. Objective standards and results orientation will make it very hard to continue with the prolonged social engineering experiment of the past 30 years or more.
You did know your kids were being experimented on, didn’t you?
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Jan 11 09 6:37 pm
Typical right-wing lets-sell-the-schools off crap, set teacher against teachers. If we have performance based pays it will just lead to the rich school getting richer and the poor schools closing, plus teachers will stop helping each other and become selfish. Schools will play teachers off against each others.
You people disgust me, you want to blame the teachers so you can push through your sick plot to privatise education
Do you have some sort of socialist text you just quote this stuff from, or do you just make it up as you go along? You have no interest in improving education for our children, do you? Seems you just want to feather your fellow unionist’s nests at the expense of NZ kids. Sad really.
Jan 11 09 6:39 pm
You really need to cut out your social darwinist crap. Youre just jealous that teachers get more pay and more days off than you so you push to take away their pay and their holidays.
Your grip on reality is getting tenuous, Millsy. Teachers getting more pay than doctors – that would make them happy! And I have no Social Darwinist leanings at all, you silly person.
Jan 11 09 6:46 pm
The PPTA is the one organisation that prevents the education system from being privatised and a lot of kids being pushed out of our schools
The PPTA does not give a stuff about schools or kids. They are only interested in their members.
Jan 11 09 8:21 pm
Millsy lives in a different world. Kids being pushed out of schools? Take away teachers pay? what planet are you on Millsy?
The ‘right wingers’ I know want teachers to be paid well as they want the best teachers to stay in teaching so children, all children, can succeed.
But you dont understand that do you? To you its all a plot you cant get it through your head that the best way for the country to succeed is for everyone to be successful. (and I use the word success as in personal satisfaction whatever that may be for the individual)
Jan 11 09 8:23 pm
The PPTA support the universal provision of public schooling and education where every school and pupil age given the same crack at a decent education.
You seem to support robbing the poor schools of their funding and teachers and giving them to the (privatised) richer schools, in which the level of education that a child gets is poportional to the amount that a parent is able to pay.
Also, performance based pay will only lead to teachers being divided amongst themselves. There are other ways to ensure excelleence in our teaching system other than through paying teachers less than others.
And also, if it wasant for the PPTA our schools would have been sold off long ago…but you want that dont you..
And you seem to be using right wing texts a lot; “social engineering”, “nanny state”. Plus your desire to break the PPTA is digusting
Jan 11 09 8:27 pm
Anyway, you seem to support social engineering of you own, forcing couples to get married, basing solo mums, pushing gays in the closet, telling women what to do with their uteruses, pushing Jesus down our school kids, or anyones throat, suborinating human need to that of profit.
Jan 11 09 8:36 pm
I am a solo Mum, Millsy have been since my son was 5 weeks old back in 1973. I never married again and bought him up on my own (I did work all that time) I have no wish to see gays in the closet I take people how I find them regardless of Religion (Im an atheist) sexual preference, race, gender or politics. There are people in each of these groups that I like and those I dont. It depends on their character Millsy thats all I judge people on. How about you?
Jan 11 09 8:40 pm
Millsy:
You really do live in your own little world, don’t you? Nowhere have I even suggested that I support privatising schools. At no point have I intimated that the PPTA has no right to exist, just that it’s interests lie with it’s members – which is where it should.
Where you invented all the garbage in your 8.27pm post is a mystery to me. This blog has not advocated any of those things except, possibly, somewhere deep in the recesses of your mad little brain…
Jan 12 09 12:14 am
lucy, my comments were directed at Mac, they were not directed at you, unless you are Lucyna from NZConservative…
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mac, OK Ill take my tinfoil hat off now, but you have to admit, measuring performance is pretty difficult, its not like a freezing works chain where you can get a bonus for boning 300 cattlebeasts per hour while the others can only manage half of that…
How would you measure it? Surveying the students? Not good, “hey Mr Smith, the students have written you were a tosser on the survey form.”
Exam results, thats pretty subjective, if only 5 students in Mr Thompsons science class of 20 get over 60% in the School Cert exam, does that mean Mr Thompson was incompetent, or didnt most of the students try hard enough. Its not that simple, mac, it never is
Jan 12 09 8:55 am
Actually, using external exam results works very well. A good teacher can usually motivate his/her students to do the work to get good results. The real question would be whether the performance award would be according to an absolute result (level 1 has a 90% pass rate, level 2 an 85% pass rate etc.) or a relative result (level 1 is 50% better than schools in the same decile)
Like all performance based pay, you have to work out a system that is both fair and does not contain perverse incentives. For instance a pay scale based on pass rates only would disadvantage bright students, as the incentive is to concentrate on the failing students.
Jan 12 09 9:52 am
No I am not Lucyna. And as I agree intirely with Macdoctor your comments were directed at me wether you meant them to be or not.
I am a fan of Peter Drucker a business guru who maintained you cannot managed what you dont measure. Performance can be measured but as MacDoctor says a system has to be worked out that is fair to all including the levels of achievement.
Jan 12 09 10:14 am
Or maybe I am wrong Millsy and your comments were directed just at Macdoctor. Perhaps you prefer to attack the persons and not the issues.
Jan 12 09 9:37 pm
And what is wrong with focusing on failing students?
To leave them behind and on the scrap heap is not really all that right.
Jan 12 09 11:38 pm
You really must work on that knee jerk reaction of yours, Millsy.
I said that incentives should not disadvantage bright students. Neither should they disadvantage poor students. The absolute LAST thing we need is another batch of poorly educated young people trying to make their way in life. One is enough.