Lynee Zajac Beck's List: Professional Development

• Since teaching is creative and complex rather than simple and algorithmic, tying teacher pay to student performance (especially on standardized tests) flies in the face of the broad evidence.
• “if-then” pay schemes in schools – has shown them to be failures
• Therefore, the best use of money as a motivator, at least for complex work, is to compensate people fairly and to try to take the issue of money off the table
• Raise the base pay of teachers – and make it easier to get rid of underperforming teachers.
• Pay for performance is a weak prescription in part because it’s based on a faulty diagnosis.
• First, the American education system itself, which is based on 19th century principles and structures, is woefully antiquated.
• socioeconomic status is what drives much of educational attainment and performance
• I find it peculiar that we single out teachers for “if-then” pay when we wouldn’t consider it for other public servants. Should we pay police officers based on how many tickets they write or whether the crime rate in their district drops? How about compensating soldiers based on whether our borders have been attacked or how many of their colleagues have been injured or killed? Would legislators, who are behind much of the bonuses-for-test-scores push, ever agree to hinge their own pay on whether budget deficits rose or fell?
• designed more for the convenience of adults than for the education of children

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