It’s not broken; don’t fix it!
There are now 51.7 teachers in the Ladue School District with Masters Degrees yet it is one of the top performing districts in the state. Ladue pays its teachers on the merit system. No genius, or even one with a Masters Degree, is required to see that top performance from students is not a “direct” or “automatic” offshoot from being educated by one with a Masters. In other words…”A Masters Degree does not a good teacher make.” It appears that basic skills and proper teacher motivation are more meaningful and successful in producing productive students. Why the residents in Ladue cannot see this fact is puzzling. The School District there seems to feel the residents will NOT vote to set aside more money for schools unless the teachers all attain Masters Degrees within the next four years. My question is that if they already have high performing students, why mess with success? The teachers who do the best jobs are paid accordingly. The students are learning. The system there is working. It’s not broken. Don’t fix it!
Roger Chinnici
Rock Hill
Mr. Chinnici,
As you know, you can’t fix stupid. However, government at all levels continues to try and legislate it.
I don’t think additional education made my Father, Mother or one of my siblings better teachers in Minnesota. However, they did get paid more for these efforts. What I do believe is the more a teacher wants to improve themselves then most likely they want to make things better for the students. I think it is worth rewarding those teachers who want to or to it make it better for students. This is one way of doing it.
I would imagine the children in Ladue do well on standardized tests due in large part of the socio-economic class of the majority of their students. I am a teacher that has a master’s degree (do you Mr. Chinnici?) and I can tell you the classes I took supported my endeavor to become a better teacher. Research has shown that merit pay isn’t the answer to educational issues. Teacher growth and professional development are. I so get tired of people who aren’t teachers claiming they know what’s best for education. When was the last time any of you were in a classroom?