While Denver wrestles with merit pay, GGW wonders: besides cold hard cash, what else might we give to top teachers?
To wit: Personally I’m a fan of cold hard cash. But some teachers who would actually GET the merit pay STILL don’t support the concept. Hmm.
I wonder if these high-performing teachers would instead be comfortable with (and motivated by) receiving merit bonuses in the form of discretionary accounts of, say, $5,000 for the year to spend on the general welfare of kids in the school? A merit slush fund, if you will.
A teacher could buy extra books without red tape, small rewards for the kiddies with the highest improvement on vocab quizzes, a brand new collared shirt for the student who seems to have only one. Ten meritorious teachers could band together and hire a social worker.
Mr. AB might hire an immigration attorney for prized student M. Ms. Frizzle might buy her school a robotics lab. Mz Smlph might hire Tony Soprano to deal with a rival tennis coach. It’s all good.
– Guest blogger GGW