Lesson 2: Merit Pay Is Unfair to Our Most At-Risk Students
I’m the best teacher in the world. I just spent four days teaching a writing workshop and you would not believe how much those students improved in an incredibly short time. I guess it’s pretty obvious that I’m awesome. I deserve a giant raise!
No, wait. I’m the worst teacher in the world. Two years ago, I taught a class for an entire year and even after a whole year with me, many of those students demonstrated no growth that could be measured. In fact, most of them didn’t even graduate from high school in four years. I guess it’s pretty obvious that I suck. I should be fired or put on an improvement plan.
Say what?! How could one teacher—me—be so highly effective in one class and so grossly ineffective in another? The students were socioeconomically similar, all students of color from low-income families. I am the same teacher using similar techniques. In fact, I actually used a whole lot more techniques in the second class; I used every single technique I could think of and when I ran out, I hit google long into the night dredging up anything I could possibly imagine. I got advice from my wise and experienced assistant principal, from my colleagues, from anyone I could find. Nothing worked.
Why?
Because it is a complete myth that all effective instruction looks Lesson 2: Merit Pay Is Unfair to Our Most At-Risk Students | Gatsby In L.A.: