Should teachers receive rewards -- or suffer penalties -- based on students' performance?

I am an elementary principal. I definitely think teachers should be held accountable, and that accountability can be defined over time through the use of certain standardized tests. In our school we use MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) and DIBELS. In both cases we administer tests in the fall and spring and are able to measure growth. MAP in particular is designed as a growth measure. Thus the argument that students enter the classroom at different levels and that teachers can't be held responsible for the levels at which the students come in is irrelevant. No matter what level students arrive at, they should grow, and that growth can be easily and objectively measured.
I do not, however, think student performance should be tied to salary. I think the evidence for true student learning performance actually increasing as a result of such motivators as salary is very weak. I think the end result would be faculty division and unhealthy competition. I think underperforming teachers should be assisted in every possible way over a time-limited period - let's say two years - and then, if they continue to underperform, they should be fired.

As an educator myself I am a firm beliver that every so ofetn a teacher should be tested. Why am I saying this?. I have been privilege to walked into several other teachers classroom and it makes me wonder why students fails or excel. JUst because you hava a teacher in classroom teaching does not mean they are knowlegeable of the materials in fromt of them. We go to school to get our degrees so that we can get a job in a certain profession in life. We are not genius teacher should be tested. How many times have I heard a teacher said the wrong things misled students, I am also a mother of three two adults and one preschooler. Had it not been the mother I am the two older ones would probaly fall throught he cracks. On the other end teacher should not be held liable if certain students fails because they choose to waste valuable time doing nonsense.

I am a parent and a teacher of children with Special Needs. Many of my students are considered the most undesirable of the undesiribles, I teach those who have been abused, neglected, misunderstood, and ignored. Others have given up on those I am willing take on. I love my job and consider it an honor to teach my students everyday. I have learned more about life from them than I have from any book in any class.

Now, since sometimes my students have been given a standardized test to take and have taken incorrectly or have torn up the tests yelling, no more test, should I be accountable for this behavior or their results concerning this? I think if you hold me accountable then you need to hold everyone else who has affected their lives negatively as well-all the teachers they had before me, parents, therapists, and the list goes on and on.

Obviously this is not fair to me or the others nor would is be an accurate (or standardized) way of gauging my ability as a teacher. Children contrary to popular beliefs are not blank slates who come to me to have all the lessons of life written on their minds and hearts as lovely as this sounds. No, they are like travelers around the world with their passports in hand of every good and bad experience they had along with all their baggage-clean or dirty. This is reality.

Now, I am not stupid and I realize school districts are places of business and as such will get more money (rewarded) based on the district state testing scores. Yes, this is not fair but is true. So the district with lower level students or students who have gone through more negative experiences will consequently have poor scores and guess what, receive lesser money to spend on the children who need it the most. Something is wrong with this. It' s like telling us to put a band-aid over a broken leg, it won't do anything to help the situation.

This does not make any sense whatsoever but then again neither does a country that rewards (welfare, free-everything) the citizens who drain the system but do nothing to contribute to it and punish (in the form of taxes) those who work hard to contribute to society by working hard and adding to the economic system of the country. What will it take for schools to understand the day of standardized testing is dead and gone, the same thing that will make our country's leaders realize that handouts don't work either!

I'm a fifth grade teacher in an urban setting, and reading this poll question and the comments posted has led me to think about two concepts:

1) In the last couple years, most of the great professional development I have attended has gone outside the "teach the standards" box in favor of a return to the simple question of effective pedagogy. These have not necessarily included gripes about No Child Left Behind; instead, they are part of a growing movement in education away from tired old practices and toward the next frontiers of our field. Digital literacies, global interaction, and students who are learning to think for themselves rather than memorizing facts and processes will soon be the reality of the educational field. However, ranking teachers based solely on their students' test scores does not acknowledge the necessary shift that should be taking place; it places higher value on teachers who use rote learning methods. This is why I'm glad that our president has noted that standardized tests alone cannot be the source for merit, but that there must be multiple characteristics that define a quality educator.

2) This, however, makes me consider the fact that I work in one of the only fields where merit does not really "pay". I have a steady income and a fair amount of job security, but the raises I will receive in pay are standard steps in the pay schedule rather than increases based on my quality as a teacher. In most other fields, those who prove themselves to be of the highest quality are compensated appropriately. If education were to move to a system which included merit in some way, I think that it would become a much more attractive field and would prompt current teachers to push toward bettering themselves. I have been to many meetings, workshops and conferences where many of the teachers were only there to fulfill a contractual requirement, and I feel that they missed some wonderful opportunities to become better educators. Merit pay might have the effect of having teachers constantly seeking ways to better themselves and their classrooms, and that will likely have the additional desired effect of raising student test scores.

Good teaching is good teaching. Yes, there are times when I view the results of my students' test scores and feel that they (and I) could have done better, but for the most part, I feel confident that I am constantly striving to improve myself as a teacher and that my students are learning skills that they will need in their lives. Whether merit pay comes or not, I hope that the conversation on how and what we should be teaching continues to evolve, for the good of our students and our profession.

We've heard about how the merit pay will affect teachers based on standardized test results, but what about those of us that are in other areas... fine arts for example. Where and when does our merit pay kick in, who will decide and what will be the criteria?

The top down approach of holding teachers accountable means well but is not effective. We need effective accountability, that promotes a collaborative learning environment. all educators in a school should have a common goal of guiding students to success, pushing boundaries and raising the bar of standards because students are surpassing it, not because we want to keap up with everyone else.

As a new teacher I feal the stress of standard tests. I try not to bring that stress to the classroom, but that is not an easy task. Many teens see little reason to do well, so should teachers be punished? I work everyday to motivate students to work for success now and in the future. I teach a variety of skills that reach beyond one subject or concept, and help students feel they can do well in college or whatever they want after high school. I try to make the world accessible to my students, so they will not fear it when left on their own, but will eagerly move towards it, and embrace their futures.

I had a private eduation in high school, very accademically hard, but it was traditional, though I learned allot of facts I did not make the connections, did not see why I should try, what was the point? memorizing facts to spit back out, forget and do it all again next week?

21st Century skills, project based learning, community involvement, work study, this is what our students need in public and private education.

I've seen deadbeat teachers who have run out of steam and creativity and I've seen creative teachers that inspire their students to want to learn. If the teacher is teaching the standards and content then the scores will reflect that. There will always be other modifiers that influence the scores and the students.
Any time scores are low then modifiers should be assessed. There may be the need for other social programs to be put in place to support the student. I think the teacher/curriculum should be the stable point of the process and the student can pivot around the teacher depending on his/her situation. When scores are low then the state needs to come in and assess why. Its everyone's responsibility not just the local education agency. Support from the top that trickles down to the classroom is what is needed. Not much teachers can do if there isn't support from the top.

Although I am neither a teacher or a parent I have been critical of the use of standardized tests in "No Child Left Behind" from its inception.The most important lesson I learned in business was that evaluating and rewarding individuals using a poor metric will yield poor results. No individual will risk a poor evaluation even knowing that other actions would be of more value to their employer.

Designing valuable multi-dimensional evaluation measurements is hard work and can't be done well without input from those will be evaluated. Did anyone bother to ask any classroom teachers?

It pains me to read of students suffering because the program were so poorly designed. Its designers should have put more effort into it and given teachers more credit.

This past year has been an eye opener for me. The recession and fears that have come with that have caused an ugliness in our schools that is unprecedented! I have seen and heard enough to remove me from public education forever. People do not realize how political schools are. The observations we have every year are totally subjective and can be used as a weapon against teachers. I do not want these so-called administrators to have anymore power to effect teacher's well-being than they already do, and that is too much. They are not always nice people with everyone's best interest at heart. They are political folks with large agendas.
Everyone blames the teachers! I am sick of it! Let's get rid of some the excess weight at the top! In our area that doesn't seem to be happening...
Don't think they aren't playing with the AYP numbers right now. The teachers are always the first to suffer and the last to get recognition. We will see if the stimulus money gets where it is supposed to.

I agree with many comments. It is a complicated matter and many variables do affect students' outcomes. However, as a teacher I can only change what I do. I am aware of my students' needs, and I try to inspire them, motivate them against all odds. I believe that we should be held accountable for our students' improvement, not necessarily for achieving "grade level competence" - the no-child-left-behind farce only hurt many children rather than saving them.
In a fair and measurable system, all classes should be randomly assembled rather than being stacked with many below-grade level students (English learners get clustered in single classrooms, often equaling the tracking of low achieving students). Any teacher who shows marked improvement for all or most students should be rewarded accordingly. If students are randomly chosen for any class, it is statistically proven that their distribution will fall within the satisfactory range with very few failing and few showing superior results. When the results are skewed toward the failing range, the teacher is at least teaching ineffectively or at most he/she is incompetent. When such results repeat over a couple of years, that teacher should be told to find a different profession!!
It is hard work to recuperate low achieving students, especially those who have fallen behind more than one grade. If I can show marked improvement for that student, then I should be rewarded for working extra hard. Accordingly, the teacher who allowed the student to fall so far behind (and some other factors should be taken into account as well, for example attendance is extremely important) should be observed more closely. We all have difficult cases, however it is impossible to have the majority of our class students fail because of external causes. And consequently, it is statistically impossible to have a failing school. In this case the teachers are either working ineffectively, or not at all. I know that hard work, sincere caring and interest in our students will produce change in many parents' attitudes toward learning as well as increase their participation in their child's education.