Vivek’s Vision for Ohio – AD FREE

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One response to “Vivek’s Vision for Ohio – AD FREE”

• Speaking to minute 27 about merit-based pay for teachers. As an educator, I agree with the concept of merit-based pay, but there are potential flaws in this concept with regards to the types of classrooms that some teachers work in. For example, in Bay County, Florida around 2012, they had something similar to this. In the complex formula, that no one really understood, in penalized teachers that worked with students with IEP’s. The formula used standardized scores from the state assessment as a large percentage of the teacher’s score. In a lot of cases, teacher’s could show tremendous growth for students on an IEP using a standards-based portfolios, but some students were still functioning below grade level and scored below-proficiency on the state assessment. The “formula” did not take into account those circumstances for teachers serving students that were known to be functioning below grade level, and therefore, those teachers were docked points on their performance score, which at that time in Bay County could affect their step increase in pay. Penalizing teachers that work with the academic and behaviorally challenging students based off standardized state assessments had a negative impact on teacher retention in the county. So, all that to be said, I whole-heartedly agree with merit-based pay if it uses fair measurement tools that do not penalize quality educators working with our most challenging students.

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