SarahB - Are you nuts?! "MAKE HOMESCHOOLING MANDATORY ... it will solve a lot of problems and save all of us lots of money." Do you live in a cave? - there are plenty of people out there that I dont know how they even make it through a day on their own & you want them to "teach" our future. Yeah right. I'm not saying some couldnt do it but as a whole society IS NOT QUALIFIED to teach. By your standard, we should just fire all the teachers and anyone with a HS diploma or GED could "teach" all subjects to our youth. Wait, you didn't disqualify the drop outs, so, if again by your suggestion, someone gets "messed up" for whatever reason & drops out of school - then has kids THEY should be responsible for teaching their own kids. What a brilliant idea. What ever happened to wanting more for your kids? Using this formula if you taught your kids 90% of what you know & they did the same - repeat for a couple of generations and we'll all be living in caves before we know it. You say your a nurse, do you really think you would have attained that level without any outside learning?
I haven't even touched on the social aspect of this brilliant idea you suggested.

While we're at it, why dont we just issue doctors kits & self help home remedies books to everyone and this entire Health Care issue goes away. We could call it "home healthcare" or "sarahcare"

SarahB, do you really think that is the best idea? I'm not against homeschooling but are all parents qualified to do this? With more and more parents working multiple jobs to make ends meet, do they have time to do this? Its easy to say everyone should home school when you have a two parent household that is doing all right. Its much harder with many single parent, struggling homes.

SarahB,, the numbers of people home schooling , and virtual schooling goes up every year and will continue to do so. Things are changing and a lot has to do with public schools can't keep up with virtual schools and home schooling is much different than what it used to be.. Many more resources for people who choose to . Colleges are acknowledging more and more every year students that have been home schooled. It is a different world than 10. even 20 years ago.

Teacher and some adults like to say..

they can't believe how kids are these day. That is a very true statement for some , but the same could be said for SOME of the teachers.

Surprisingly, I agree with most of what was printed today. As an educator, It would be nice to have our efforts acknowledged and/or penalized. Using WKCE results, however, is not the way to do it. That is very scarey. How many of you would want a 9, 13, or 15 year old to determine how much you get paid? Furthermore, the WKCE is not given in all subjects and all grade levels. How would a FACE teacher be evaluated? What about a fifth grade Science teacher?

My solution? As I have stated in other blogs, MAKE HOMESCHOOLING MANDATORY ... it will solve a lot of problems and save all of us lots of money.

Having a kid in Marshall, there are is not a need to give this group a raise.

absolutely. No one should get a raise just because. It needs to be based on performance. It's not right that there are outstanding teachers getting the same raise as the slackers.

I'll go back to MrPerfect's post.....how could the merit pay system be implemented fairly? As a teacher I have no problem with merit pay.....I know some teachers work harder and are more effective than others. The question is how is this measured? Test scores? How do you compare a teacher who teaches all advanced placement classes with a teacher who teaches disabled students? Growth over time in your class? How do you compare teachers who teach year long or semester classes with teachers who only teach quarter classes? How do you compare elementary teachers with secondary? Core classes with electives? Again, I'm not against the idea I just need to see how it would be implemented fairly.

If people are against across the board pay raises then you need to look at all public jobs (police/fire/city workers) not just teachers.

a small little camera in each room, portable so it can be moved to different rooms, not always in the same rooms. I think we would see better behavior from teachers and students if they thought they were being watched.

It's awful to bug teachers? No its not. Many work places monitor their employees, they should be no different, in fact more so as they have our kids in their class. IF they have nothing to hide it would be a non issue.. IF they have something to hide or know their performance is sub par than they might have a issue with it. Many, many places have cameras, or even capture what there employees are doing on their computers at work. Nothing to hide ... NO Fear..

Kellibean makes some valid points. There is a lot more to being a good teacher. Some kids test well. Some do not. My kids always could tell when a teacher likes and care about what they do. They could also tell when it was only a paycheck.(the last of 3 graduated this past June).I would think opinions of students, parents, and other staff could help determine worthy teachers. Maybe a random survey of each group (not all, just some) and weighted 20%, 20%, and 40% with another 20% from tests, how many students pass or other data driven factors.

Teachers should be bugged? That is horrible. How many of you want to be bugged or on camera all day while at work? I would guess that not many of you want to. As a teacher, I am not scared and do not really feel like I have that much to hide. I am confident of my classroom and I always welcome other teachers and administration to my classroom. We have administration stop by unexpected multiple times each year to see how class is going. Students also tell people and word gets out on what each teacher allows in their classroom too. Bugging a classroom is probably the most far fetched thing I have ever heard of. This year I will even look to add a podcast to my class so I record my class and upload it to my website so absent students are able to listen to a lecture in the class. If I am recording myself, that is fine. But for people to suggest bugging to spy on a classroom is horrible.

I think it would be perfectly acceptable for teacher's to be monitored from a far and evaluated. If they have nothing to hide why not.

Maybe we should use more Hip-Hop rhyming......

There is more to teaching than a score from a test. I think we (this nation) already do too much "teaching to the test", and now it is being suggested that teacher's performance be based on these tests?
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Whatever happened to learning? What happened to creativity and enthusiasm? Good old fashion discussions about events in history, or principles behind geometry, or why the prism acts as it does with color, these things can now only be shared in the classroom IF they coincide with what the questions are on the test. What a shame! How do our children truly LEARN about history by only being able to regurgitate dates? How do they ever understand the concept of 'history repeats itself' when the material can't be covered unless the test has a question about it?
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Being a good teacher is about more than how the classroom of students performs on a test. This is the age of technology; there must be SOME way to monitor classrooms and gage what and how teachers are teaching. Call it "bugging" if you like, but, if the teacher is truly in the field because he/she wants and loves to teach, then I believe the monitoring would reveal that.

There has to be some method to reward the good teachers, and not just give raises across the board. That is not right. NOT all teacher's are good teachers , just like not all students try. No more raises just because make them earn it. Just like any one else. For some reason they think they should be entitled. Baloney.

I was in school years ago. Depression era. I see the the greatest difference in, not how well teachers do, but that kids are not ashamed to do poorly. "Cool" I guess.

When I was in school it was shameful not to strive for good grades. Peers would let you know to try a bit harder.Parental disapproval of poor grades was also a factor.

I realize I am now a target for scornful remarks as "old fashioned", but consider my way worked.

MrPerfect - You have just demonstrated by your comment that you are not. I quote from one of your previous posts “I am a teacher and I care tremendously for my kids . . . .” Since you seem to have experienced “the students who could be told the answers and STILL get the answers wrong” may I make a suggestion that you examine the way you teach? A good way to look at this would be to examine it from those kids point of view. Maybe they are not learning or do not care because they had an “undesirable” teacher (past or present) that would call them dumb and undesirable.

no im saying that you increase the temptation when you put it out there in front of them. Im saying anyone would but we wouldnt' think teachers would sleep with students. not all teachers do just trying to make a point. they should be paid on the job they do and its a tremendous job.

curtain call- there are teachers who smoke crack and bring drugs to school. I would be sure there are teachers who would alter test grades so they would get paid more.

What about the teachers who get the "undesireable" kids (the ones who don't want to try, or the just plain dumb ones)? We all know they are out there -- the students who could be told the answers and STILL get the answers wrong. You can't say they are equally spread out because the high schools have their honors classes and Advanced placement classes that obviously get higher scores than special education classes.
Even still what about the non-core classes such as music, art, industrial arts, home ec, etc...? What about those teachers? How are they going to be assessed?
Plus, are the teachers going to be given more freedom as to who is or who is not in their class? Think back to your high school days -- which classes were ALWAYS the dumping grounds: art, phy ed, and industrial arts. How skewed will these numbers be just because the counselors and administrators dump them in there.

There's too many questions left unanswered. And there are too many variables to make this system fair.

And finally, of course there are teachers who will fix the scores. Just like there are corrupt politicians and crooked cops. There's not many, but they are out there.

are you suggesting that there are teachers who would 'fix' the scores?

would you then in fact create a situation in a bad economy where student test scores would be manipulated by teachers? desperate times bring desperate measures...

Teachers most certainly should be paid by how well they teach, not because they teach. Just teaching is not good enough, they have to be effective and good at what they do.. How many people do you know get raises just because? Enough of the automatic pay raises.