Surprise! Teachers who are paid by results 'do a better job'

Performance-related pay awards have inspired teachers to raise their game and achieve better results for GCSE pupils, according to a study of the scheme. In spite of initial hostility to the idea among teachers, researchers from the University of Bristol have found that children whose teacher had received a financial performance reward, achieved half a grade higher in each subject at GCSE.

The Performance Threshold scheme was introduced in 2000 to give an incentive to experienced teachers, who had been previously paid on a unified basic salary scale and could only raise their wages by taking on extra administrative duties.

Five years ago, the concept of bonuses for individual teachers was condemned by unions for being divisive and unfair. But in Paying Teachers by Results Simon Burgess and Carol Propper, of the Centre for Market and Public Organisation, found that the introduction of the scheme achieved "on average half a GCSE point more than equivalent pupils taught by the same teachers before the scheme was introduced". The academics, who assessed the results of 181 teachers at 25 schools from the Midlands to Bristol, tracked the average progress of their 14-year-old pupils at Key Stage 3 and later at GCSE level, before and after the reform.

By looking also at the scores of those staff who were not eligible for the increased pay awards and comparing both sets of results, they concluded that higher pay did achieve better grades. They also found that the less achieving 14-year-olds made more gains in their tests than higher-scoring pupils The Performance Threshold system resulted in the scrapping of a nine-point pay scale, under which five years ago teachers could be paid anything from 14,658 to 23,193 pounds

Passing the threshold leads to an annual 2,000 pound bonus per year until the end of their careers. The Government allocated 908.5 million pounds funding last year to schools on the basis of the number of "threshold and post-threshold teachers". The increases, which can take a teacher's pay up to 30,000 pounds, are assessed against rigorous criteria and annual targets. They are paid for out of the schools' funds and have marked a sea change in how children are taught.

Marcia Twelftree, head teacher of Charters school in Ascot, has 104 teachers to about 1,600 teenagers. She insists that good schools have always rewarded hard-working staff members. "I pay teachers what they are worth. I believe that a good school can only be a good school if you pay the teachers properly."

In the past, the Bristol team said, many heads claimed that they would have liked to reward staff but could not afford to. Nowadays they are bound to do so, if their teachers have met the strict criteria.

The National Union of Teachers, which opposed the scheme, found little praise for it yesterday. Arguing that the vast majority of staff who applied for the extra money were granted it, a spokesman said: "It shows the daftness of performance- related pay because the majority of children are taught by good teachers. They are not be granted performance-related pay if they have taught for less than five years, so it's not a valid comparison."

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School Considers A Religious Holiday For Muslims

To be fair, no doubt Greeks will now deserve a holiday to celebrate the heroic stand of the Spartans at Thermopylae; The Hindus must of course be allowed to celebrate Diwali; atheists will want a holiday to celebrate the birth of Charles Darwin and Russians will want to celebrate all their holy days according to their own Julian calendar ..... I could go on...

Muslims may get a religious holiday recognized by a public school in the Hillsborough County school district. Terrace Community School, a charter school housed at the Museum of Science & Industry, is considering changing its school calendar to give a day off for Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan. The school's board will vote on the proposal at its monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

The proposal came from Principal Gary Hocevar after controversy erupted in the Hillsborough County school district. Last month, the Hillsborough County school board decided to eliminate all days off coinciding with religious holidays except Christmas, which falls during winter break. The move came after a group of Muslims asked for a day off for Eid al-Fitr. After receiving thousands of e-mails and phone calls and much national news media attention, the board reversed that decision but still did not add a day off for the Muslim holiday. The issue raised questions by Terrace Community students, and Hocevar proposed changing his school's calendar at November's board meeting.

Hocevar expected the proposal to be controversial, so Terrace Community board members decided to delay the vote until December. But Hocevar said he has received only one phone call in opposition to the change. "Most of our parents were really supportive of the idea since our school is so diverse," Hocevar said.

About 5 percent of the school's 352 students are Muslim. Charter schools operate as public schools but without many district restrictions. They are free to create their own calendar, but most operate on the district's schedule to accommodate school services and parents who might have children in other schools. If the charter school board approves the new calendar, it will be the first time the school's schedule will differ from the district's. The school's calendar still would include days off for Yom Kippur and Good Friday.

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"

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