State Education News

Program eyes link between students, Chillicothe community (Chillicothe Gazette

Chillicothe City Schools is enlisting the help of community members this fall to bolster student performance at Mount Logan and Tiffin elementary schools…Read more...

High-calorie drinks limited in schools (Dayton Daily News)

Beverage companies decreased drink calories offered in schools by 90 percent between 2004 and 2010, according to a recent study, a strategy industry and school officials…Read more...

Local Education News

Stow school board member sues peers, district treasurer (Akron Beacon Journal)

A Stow-Munroe Falls Board of Education member has sued the rest of the board and the district’s treasurer…Read more...

Perry classroom addresses needs of children with autism (Canton Repository)

Elementary school is all about exploration. It’s about discovering the world and its shapes, colors, sounds and numbers…Read more...

Being bullied is no joke, students told (Findlay Courier)

The message was clear: Something you may find funny may forever damage another person's view of themselves…Read more...

Editorial

Planned budget cuts harm at-risk youth (Cincinnati Enquirer)

There is a lot of talk in our nation’s capital about the pending sequestration of nondefense discretionary programs…Read more...

The term “merit pay” has gained a prominent place in the debate over education reform. First it was D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee trumpeting it as a key to fixing the D.C.’s ailing public schools. Then a handful of other cities gave it a go, including Denver, New York City, and Nashville. Merit pay is a big plank of Education Secretary Arne Duncan‘s reform platform. Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel has just launched his own version of merit pay that focuses incentives toward principals. There’s just one problem: educators almost universally hate merit pay, and have been adamantly opposed to it from day one. Simply, teachers say merit pay won’t work.

In the last year, there’s been some pretty damning evidence proving them right; research showing that merit pay, in a variety of shapes and sizes, fails to raise student performance. In the worst of cases, such as the scandal in Atlanta, it’s contributed to flat-out cheating on the part of teachers and administrators. So, are we surprised that educators don’t respond to monetary incentives? Is that even the right conclusion to draw?

[readon2 url="http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/09/20/the-debate-over-teacher-merit-pay-a-freakonomics-quorum/"]Continue reading...[/readon2]

Education News for 08-31-2012

The Debate over Teacher Merit Pay