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The Forum > Article Comments > What a performance about paying teachers! > Comments

What a performance about paying teachers! : Comments

By Ian Keese, published 23/4/2007

The millions of dollars, spent on politically correct pseudo-issues, could have been spent on improving the education of students.

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Getting back to the original article...

First, you say that performance pay is unworkable and in the next breath you say it can be implemented to give senior teachers higher pay.

That's an illogical position. Even you are for performance pay or you are not.

If you are for it, then you must accept that the poorer teachers will be paid less than the better ones.
Posted by grn, Thursday, 3 May 2007 2:54:06 PM
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Barbara P,

You still have not mentioned the students.

You seem to be suggesting that teachers should be paid more so that they will get a warm and fuzzy feeling. Most people get a warm and fuzzy feeling if they are paid more, but the normal steps are :-

1/ someone increases their performance or productivity,
2/ they get performance pay or some type of bonus for increasing their performance or productivity,
3/ then they get a warm and fuzzy feeling.

I don’t think you can leave out step 1.

So teachers would have to increase student performance before teachers get performance pay.

I also see no problems in retraining or disciplining teachers for maligning boys, using parents as scapegoats, or not giving information or answering questions etc. Anyone else in any other industry would receive retraining or disciplinary action if they did such things.
Posted by HRS, Sunday, 6 May 2007 11:13:45 AM
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HRS perhaps this letter from The Age yesterday sums up many teachers' position . . . . .

Good schooling is a partnership

RE "Parents pay for help as private schools fail test" (The Age, 4/5). Thank you for enrolling your child at our school. Children's educational achievement depends on a variety of factors: their native ability as measured by an intelligence test, as well as their motivation. Successful students must feel safe and comfortable in their family environment. They must have proper health and wellbeing.

All of these are outside our control. We undertake to provide children with the opportunity to learn, dedicated and motivated teaching staff, equipment, materials and a safe, encouraging environment. Over the coming six years, you entrust your child to our care for less than 25 per cent of his/her waking time. We look forward to our partnership together to nurture his/her education.

Lindsay J. Smith, Malvern East
Posted by billie, Sunday, 6 May 2007 11:17:44 AM
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Billie,
If that was a school policy, then it seems like a rhetoric type policy to me, with nothing substantial in it.

It could read:- At this school, the teachers aim to improve the academic performance of your child.

Or better still:- At this school, the teachers will improve the academic performance of your child.

If the academic performance of the children in the school does improve in time, then the teachers get performance pay.
Posted by HRS, Monday, 7 May 2007 10:43:37 AM
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If any kind of extra performance pay is to exist (and it does already to some small measure, certainly in the Victorian system), then you need to dramatically boost teacher's base salary anyway.

Yes, yes, HRS- "OOH NO BUT THEY HAVN'T DONE ANYTHING TO DESERVE IT!" Well, I disagree. They certainly do deserve it - I cannot think of any other profession, with the qualifications required by teaching (i.e. four year university), which have had a diminishing of their real, actual purchasing power, salary over the years.

Teachers require higher pay scales for simply turning up and doing the job which, by and large, they do pretty damn well.

Then, once teachers are being paid comparable to their skills and qualifications and dedication, can we add on top a degree of outcomes-dependent money.

But even then, its a tricky thing, and it would be innappropriate to tie it to individual student performance - many times you'll see a kid go through a period of 'consolidation' - everything they've learnt so far starts to actually 'settle in' and make sense, and then all of a sudden they'll make a huge leap forward. The tricky thing about this is that it might have been the work of teacher A who helped clarify the ideas which lead to consolidation, but the kid's leap forward occurs under teacher B's watch, so they get the benefit. Very difficult.
Posted by Laurie, Monday, 7 May 2007 5:07:10 PM
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