Teachers need more incentive for students to succeed, not just to go to work. Too many students are passed for the sake of passing them onto the next teacher, preventing the student from learning, and other students from being able to excel. Some sort of financial incentive should exist for teachers whose students are all at/above grade level or passing state tests, or actually graduating onto the next class level.
The problem with this is that teachers are also then punished when districts don’t have enough funds or choose not to fund enough the support for students who need extra support. Whether that’s mental health support, family support, special education, etc.
if you do financial incentives, give them for relative progress, not absolute results
make the students take a standard, but useful test once a year, or twice a year - and measure the improvement.
A teacher who gets a student from 20% to 60% has certainly done a good job, and maybe a better job as the teacher who brought a student from 80% to 82%
else, let teachers work how they like. give them the freedom to develop their personal style.
Teachers don’t choose the requirements for passing. School boards routinely tell teachers what they can and cannot do. For example, in my school, we had a 50% grade floor and NO attendance policy. Kids could attend 2 days or fewer a week, do a couple of assignments and eke out a passing score. Teachers are “discouraged” from failing kids.
I would have LOVED to make more money for better results, but you are also ignoring the student part. Kids are capable of learning from terrible teachers and not learning from good teachers. The common element in those who do learn is that they were doing what was necessary. Of course, bad teachers should be removed. But there is no substitute for kids trying.
children are made for learning, by nature.
good teachers make all the difference.
allow that children can learn the things they are biologically ready to learn - this will result in very fast and effective learning.
But not every one will learn the same thing at the same time.
it would probably be best if students could prepare for different qualifying tests - these are organized on a federal level, in order to get a standard - but every student is free to choose what he or she wants to prepare for, and how fast.
school would become more like sports training and coaching, where every athlete gets an individually tailored learning program, and an ivdividzal choice of competitions to compete at.
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