More from Education Week . . .

Here are two other very short articles from the November 11th Education Week that caught my eye. The first has the title, ‘GenY’ Teachers Don’t Reject All Merit Pay, which shares information from a report about a willingness on the part of teachers 32 or younger to consider merit pay under certain conditions. Less than half, however, were open to tying teacher pay to student test scores.

What really caught my eye was the last paragraph where we learn that merit pay was rated last of twelve proposals for improving teaching in this survey. Doesn’t that make the title a little misleading? What are the other proposals that were all rated higher and why no focus on them?

Overall, though, merit-pay plans did not rank high as a policy prescription among the group of younger teachers. They rated it last among 12 proposals for improving teaching.

The second article is another short report on a paper about the importance of teacher quality and the need to improve the supply of skilled teachers. As with the previous article it was the last paragraph that resonated with me.

In the end, the paper concludes, if we want high-quality teachers, we will need to accord teaching with a higher status, create policies that attract and keep good teachers in the workforce, enhance school working conditions, and create policies that demand that those teachers continue to learn and teach their students well.

If we could establish the learning environments described in this paragraph, the accountability policies mentioned might not be necessary. Our experience would suggest that to be true. Our teachers are open and energized by learning opportunities and focused on supporting learning for all students. Yes, we need to increase the supply of skilled teachers. We also need the environments to retain and support them and those already in our class rooms. What are the attributes of a system with these environments that result in teachers wanting to work in them?