Idaho's RTT proposals for teachers have left me shaking my head.
A pilot program would give school-wide bonuses to schools that rank in "the top three quartiles of schools statewide" in terms of student growth. The top three quartiles. That means 75 percent of schools would get bonuses for performance. That includes half of all schools with below average student growth.
Moreover, schools whose test scores rank in the top two quartiles of the state would also get performance bonuses.
So any school in the top half of scores or top three-quarters of growth would be a winner. That means every school could be eligible for a school-wide bonus.
The virtual indiscriminateness of these awards is on top of the fact that all bonuses would be based on group performance. An individual teacher's influence on student learning would be immaterial. A great teacher in a bad school would lose out; the lowest performing teacher in a good school--actually, per above, in all but the very worst schools--would win.
And this is all on top of the fact that rather than making changes to the state's antiquated rules on the use of student data in tenure and termination decisions, the state merely cites its statutes covering these areas.
Why not change these state rules?
Granting tenure using a rigorous and transparent evaluation is a controversial topic heard throughout boardrooms and teacher??break rooms across Idaho.
--Andy Smarick