A primary reason the public has not been more supportive of higher funding for education has been the poor relationship between better funding and higher educational quality as revealed by a number of studies.

Use of an appraisal system based upon the following guidelines should go a long way toward turning things around.

Those associated with schools, need to fairly identify true “stars” and “inadequate performers” as one of the bases for:

justifying good pay for outstanding teachers,

providing for self-guidance on the part of newcomers and present staff,

and providing an important basis for terminating those who cannot, or will not, measure up.

Research findings show that evaluators achieve much better agreement about who are Stars and Inadequate Performers than they do about who are Average, Above-Average, and Below-Average performers. Yet, placing individuals in the middle-three categories is a time-consuming, often arbitrary, and resentment-causing activity that most evaluators dislike having to do. Also, clearly, an average performer in a superior organization deserves much more recognition than an average performer in an inferior one. No wonder that many teachers and their unions oppose conventional merit-rating systems!

To avoid a popularity contest, assure greater fairness, and provide for constructive self-guidance, there should be behavioral documentation for both Star and Inadequate Performer nominations via the Critical Incident Technique.
To lay the groundwork for this, students, parents, veteran administrators, and experienced teachers should be polled at to what specific, observable behaviors they associate with outstanding and inadequate performance for each important aspect of a teacher’s job.

Then, required behavioral documentation for Star and Inadequate-Performer nominations from fellow teachers, adminstrators, students, and parents should be based upon the most agreed-upon behaviors, and the agreed-to relative weights that should be assigned to these.

The results of this analysis can also constructively guide the initial training and subsequent selection of teachers, as well as, provide a much-needed, qualifying context for the currently over-stressed evaluation factor of test-score-improvement.

This approach also sets the stage for more productive review sessions between the rater and ratee. Since the ratee has a sound basis for self-rating, the session should start with the rater asking “How do you rate yourself for this past period through the presentation of relevant, supporting behaviors?” No rater can be all-knowing, so if behaviors are mentioned that she or he is not aware of, the rater can postpone giving his or her evaluation to provide time to check out the validity of the assertions, if this seems necessary.

A sound behavioral basis for rating also facilitates the use of motivational goal setting during the review session. For example, if the ratee wants to be a Star, what specific behavioral goals does she or he plan to adopt by such and such a time? If stardom is not the goal, which specific, Inadequate Performer behaviors will he or she need to avoid?
This approach permits a rater to be more of a counselor and coach, than one who appears to sit in arbitrary judgment.

For discussion of relevant research and related citations, see: “Improving Performance Appraisal Systems” by William M. Fox, NATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY REVIEW, Winter 1987-88, pages 20-27.

William Fox
gryfox@bellsouth.net
Professor Emeritus
Department of Management
University of Florida
(352) 376-9786

This has to be a battle between parents and good teachers on one side and bad teachers and the Democrats on the other.

I don’t think the Democrats are going to be winning many intellectual battles any time soon. Their opposition is way too intelligent and persuasive. With Sarah Palin and John McCain leading the battle, there are lots of talk radio and TV commentators on our side who will bring the issue before the American people.

I wasn’t so hopeful before Sarah but now I think people are energized and once we win our first great battle (on energy) victory will give us momentum which will carry us forward on other issues from vouchers to the flat tax. I see such a pent-up desire for reform on the part of the American people that politicians will become afraid, very afraid.

Any parent who tells you that they have no power to change a poor performing school is not trying hard enough. They ARE afraid of the parents especially when they group together as in the PTA or PTO. Their power is tremendous and I have seen it up close and personal. You are taking the easy way out and looking to one cause for the problems. Your still not trying hard enough.

Look at Obama’s list of “changes”. None will impact the Dem voting base except to give them more money. McCain singled out education as an issue. There is a clear *political* basis for the sorry state of “education”, and the problem lives on the left.

The above statement just floored me expecially since we are being raised on the stories of Enron, and now Freddie Mack and Fannie Mae with all the other sandwiched in between such as all the bank failures etc. etc. High performers paid better? You must not be familiar with the old saying “F_ck up, move up”.

This comparison would work if private corporations were funded by taxes. The bailouts are a separate issue, but the fact of the matter is, if a private company f_cks up, it will typically go out of business with no real impact on the tax payers. When public schools f_ck up, they have the power to hold students in them until their parents can afford to send them elsewhere. When you factor in property taxes AND private tuition, most parents can’t afford it, which makes all of the difference in the world.

Unions came about because workers needed to join together and fight for better pay and better working conditions.

And that has nothing to do with public sector unions. Teachers are already given plush jobs. They don’t have to work a full year to make their salary. I had a teacher in high school who exploited that fact by doing all of her grading during her classes. She then had enough time to work a second job, and as a result, had quite a lot of disposable income to enjoy since she was single.

Denying that is denying history. Fixing corrupt unions should be a high priorty, just as fixing corrupt politicians, but singling out the Union is business as usual for business. Try better.

What you have here is a union that has monopolized the school system, in a system where most students have no choice but to go to that union-monopolized school system. You’re guilty of denying reality here because you are being an ideologue. People who work for government entities should not be able to unionize because their pay comes from tax revenue, not corporate revenue.

Like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic more money down this unionized rat hole isn’t the answer. The public has bought into the teacher’s union no can do excuses. Why does a first grade teacher get tenure? It’s ridiculous.

It’s a failed public taxpayer funded industry that needs privatized. It couldn’t be any worse.

Now, the uniona won’t like this but they are non taxable entities and should not be able to fund politicians and campaigns. Unions are probably the worst thing that could bappen to schools or government.