Bitter? Not at all. There are some good teachers deserving of thanks. Some I was fortunate to have as a teacher. But I am cynical of an industry that demands 6 figure salaries along with no accountability. Where teachers are rewarded for length of service and educational attainment, not success in educating the students.
Want to improve education for the kids?
Give teachers a base salary, plus $X for every student of theirs that meets grade standards at the end of the school year.
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A long time ago, the company I was working for hired a team of 6 or 7 older contractors to do a special job for IBM. They completed it on time, under budget, and IBM was completely satisfied. They also each received a $10,000 bonus for meeting those conditions (a lot of money in those days). I asked them if the bonus had any relationship with meeting that goal, and they were offended, saying they were professionals and gave it their best regardless.
Haha, I didn't buy that. Do you?
Remember that earthquake in LA where a freeway interchange collapsed? They offered the contractor $1,000,000 for each day ahead of schedule the reconstruction was finished. I don't recall the exact details, but they finished it months ahead of schedule.
> Give teachers a base salary, plus $X for every student of theirs that meets grade standards at the end of the school year.
Wouldn't this cause misaligned incentives leading to teachers going out of their way to game the grade standards, similar to what has happened with No Child Left Behind
Not that there probably shouldn't be experimentation with compensation to create incentives, but $X per head is overly simplistic and is the sort of thing that gets gamed all of the time.
I know it doesn't boil down to a sentence. Actually implementing it would be more complex.
Will it be gamed? People will surely try. People try to game the SATs all the time, with some small success. But the SATs are still very useful and effective.
The bottom line is, will better results be achieved with this method? Almost certainly.
P.S. Much of the cheating from on the NCLB system was the people who were affected by the test results were the ones administering the test. Of course that won't work. An independent organization has to administer the tests.
Are talking about software or teaching? My accountability is quite low compared to teachers and i make significantly more. I do believe those IBM contractors because it wouldnt motivate me. I'm already doing quite well so you have to get to 1/3 my yearly salary to actually change my behavior but Im a professional so i already give it my all. I do think teachers should make more and software devs should make less but it is not the world we live apparently.
You're a unicorn, then. Pay for results is a big reason why the free market works so well. Socialism relies on altruistic self-sacrifice, and we both know how well that works.
Want to improve education for the kids?
Give teachers a base salary, plus $X for every student of theirs that meets grade standards at the end of the school year.
----
A long time ago, the company I was working for hired a team of 6 or 7 older contractors to do a special job for IBM. They completed it on time, under budget, and IBM was completely satisfied. They also each received a $10,000 bonus for meeting those conditions (a lot of money in those days). I asked them if the bonus had any relationship with meeting that goal, and they were offended, saying they were professionals and gave it their best regardless.
Haha, I didn't buy that. Do you?
Remember that earthquake in LA where a freeway interchange collapsed? They offered the contractor $1,000,000 for each day ahead of schedule the reconstruction was finished. I don't recall the exact details, but they finished it months ahead of schedule.
Money talks. Want results? Pay for results.