Thomas: Linking teacher pay to test scores helps no one
- Guest Columnist
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Starting in the early 1980s, education reform focused on increasing expectations for students by establishing state standards and graduation requirements that included high-stakes exit exams. More recently, it has shifted from student accountability to teacher accountability.
Under federal pressure to win grants under Race to the Top and waivers to opt out of the No Child Left Behind law, many states are changing their teacher evaluations and pay scales to include student test scores.
South Carolina is no different. Education Superintendent Mick Zais is proposing to field test a new teacher-evaluation system in which up to 40 percent of the score will be based on