Performance Based Pay for Teachers

Performance Based Pay for Teachers Performance-based pay for teachers, or merit pay, is a trending educational topic. Teachers pay, in general, is often highly debated. Performance-based pay ties teaching components such as standardized test scores and teacher evaluations to a salary schedule. Performance-based pay originated from a corporate model that bases a teachers salary on job performance. Higher performing teachers receive more compensation, while lower performing teachers receive less. The Denver, Colorado school district may have the most successful performance-based pay program in the nation. The program, called ProComp, is seen as a national model for performance-based pay. ProComp was designed to impact critical issues such as student achievement, teacher retention, and teacher recruitment positively. The program has been credited with boosting those areas, but it does have its critics. Performance-based pay will likely continue to increase in popularity over the next decade. Like any educational reform issue, there are two sides to the argument. Here, we examine the pros and cons of performance-based pay for teachers. Pros Motivates Teachers to Make Improvements in the Classroom Performance-based pay systems offer teachers a reward based on meeting set performance measures typically tied to student performance. These measures are based on educational research and are a set of best practices intended to boost overall student outcomes. Many of the best teachers are already doing a lot of these things in their classrooms. With performance-based pay, they may be asked to take it a little above what they normally do, or it may motivate low performing teachers to get their acts together to receive their bonus. Provides Teachers With the Opportunity to Receive a Higher Salary People typically do not become teachers because of the salary. But, it doesnt mean that they do not want or need more money. Sadly, a relatively large number of teachers across the country are picking up a second job to keep their family afloat financially. Performance-based pay not only provides teachers with an option to make more money but also motivates them to meet targeted objectives while doing so. It is a win, win situation both for the teacher and their students. The teacher makes more money, and in turn, their students get a better education. Invites Competition Thus Raising Student Performance Performance-based pay creates competition among teachers. The better their students perform, the more money theyll receive. Higher outcomes translate to higher pay. Teachers are often competitive by nature. They want their fellow teachers to be successful. But, they also want to be more successful then them. Healthy competition pushes teachers to become better, which in turn boost student learning. Everyone wins when the best teachers work hard to stay at the top, and mediocre teachers work hard to improve enough to be considered one the best. Allows Bad Teachers to Be Removed Easier Many performance-based pay systems include components which enable principals to terminate teachers who continuously fail to meet goals and objectives. Most teacher unions adamantly opposed performance-based pay because of this element. Standard teacher contracts make it difficult to terminate employment, but a performance-based pay contract makes it easier to remove a bad teacher. Teachers who are unable to get the job done are replaced by another teacher who may be able to get things on track. Aids in Teacher Recruitment and Retention Performance-based pay can be an attractive incentive especially for young teachers who have a lot to offer. The opportunity for higher pay is often too compelling to pass up. To passionate teachers, the extra work is worth the higher salary. Also, schools offering performance-based compensation typically have no problems attracting top teaching talent. The pool is usually bottomless, so they can get quality teachers from the beginning. They also keep their good teachers. The best teachers are easy to retain because they are well respected and likely will not receive a higher salary elsewhere. Cons Encourages Teachers to Teach to Standardized Tests A large part of the performance-based pay objectives rests in standardized test scores. Teachers across the nation are already feeling the pressure to abandon creativity and originality and instead to teach to the tests. Attaching an increase in pay only amplifies that situation. Standardized testing is all the rage in public education, and performance-based pay just adds fuel to the fire. Teachers skip once celebrated teachable moments. They neglect valuable life lessons and have essentially become robots all in the name of passing a single test on a single day during the school year. Can Potentially Be Costly to the District School districts across the United States are already strapped for cash. Teachers on a performance-based contract receive a base salary. They receive a â€Å"bonus† for meeting specific objectives and goals. This â€Å"bonus† money can add up quickly. The Denver Public School District in Colorado was able to start ProComp thanks to voters who approved a tax increase that allowed them to fund the incentive program. It would have been impossible to fund the program without the revenue generated from the tax increase. School districts would find it exceedingly difficult to maintain the funds necessary to run a performance-based pay program without additional funding. Dilutes a Teacher’s Overall Value Most teachers offer much more than just the ability to meet learning objectives or goals. Teaching should be about more than just a test score. Ideally, teachers should be rewarded for the size of the impact they make and for making a difference in the lives of their students. Sometimes those qualities go unrecognized and unrewarded. Teachers have a powerful influence on their students, yet theyre relegated to ensuring that their students are going to pass a test. It skews the real value of a teacher when you only base the job they are doing on meeting student performance objectives.   Fails to Consider Factors Beyond a Teacher’s Control There are many factors beyond a teacher’s control that influence student performance just as much or more than any teacher will. Factors such as lack of parental involvement, poverty, and learning disabilities offer real hindrances to learning. They are nearly impossible to overcome. The reality is that teachers who sacrifice to pour into the lives of these students are often seen as bad teachers because their students do not meet the level of proficiency that their peers do. The truth is that many of these teachers are doing a far superior job than their peers who teach at an affluent school. Sometimes they fail to receive the same rewards for their hard work. Can Potentially Harm High-Risk Areas Every school is not the same. Every student is not the same. Why would a teacher want to teach in a school surrounded by poverty and have the cards stacked against them, when they can teach in an affluent school and have immediate success? A performance-based pay system would keep many of the best teachers from pursuing jobs in those high-risk areas because of nearly impossible odds to meet the performance measures needed to make it worth the while.

The Warring States Period of Ancient China

The Warring States Period of Ancient China The Warring States period in Ancient Chinese historywhich followed the period known as Spring and Autumn (770-476 B.C.) during the  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Chou (Zhou) Dynastyran from about 475-221 B.C. It was a period of violence and chaos during which the philosopher Sun-Tzu is said to have lived and culture to have flourished. Seven States of China There were about seven states of China during the Warring States period, including Yen, which was not one of the contending states, and 6 that were: ChIChuChinWeiHanChao Two of these states, the Chin and Chu, came to dominate, and in 223, the Chin defeated the Chu, establishing the first unified Chinese state two years later. During the Spring and Autumn period, which preceded the Warring States, warfare was feudal and reliant on the war chariot. During the Warring Period, military campaigns were directed by the states who fitted out their soldiers with individual weapons. Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica and The Oxford Companion to Military History. Examples During the Warring States Period, but elsewhere in the world, Alexander the Great conquered his enormous Hellenistic Greek empire, Rome came to dominate Italy, and Buddhism spread to China.

Is Bill Gates Correct in the view that foreign aid truly matters Essay

Is Bill Gates Correct in the view that foreign aid truly matters - Essay Example agencies value the life of a single American at more than a few million dollars).2 Gates blames the media for negative publicity on matters concerning foreign aid, he refers to one British newspaper that gave its readers the impression that foreign aid is just but a waste of resources. In one of their articles, it was written that more than half of British voters advocated for slashes in overseas aid money. He viewed this as a distortion of the actual truth of what goes on in countries that receive aid. As much as Gates knows that no program comes without its flaws, he has opted to look at the positive aspect of aid. He goes on to add that foreign aid is just but a tool in the fight against disease and poverty. Developed countries need to make certain changes in their policies like opening up their markets and cutting agronomic subsidisations. The developing countries also have a role to play in this, they need to allocate more money to health matters and progress for their own folks . In Gate’s view, it effectively saves and improves lives.4 ‘By 2035, there will be almost no poor countries left in the world.’ Bill Gates. Through his foundation, the Gates Foundation, they invent vaccines that help to improve the health of children and in turn lighten the burden on the countries’ healthcare and social system. Having healthier children apart from the life factor is beneficial in that it allows children to grow physically and mentally and they become productive adults in future. Gates and his wife Melinda, have opted to focus on agriculture and healthcare because these are the two fields that they have more of a hands on familiarity. These are also the two fields that lay a foundation for long-term economic evolution. The belief that foreign aid is a large portion of rich countries’ annual budget is a misguided notion. A substantial number of

Politics Coursework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Politics Coursework - Essay Example One area of international law that has been consistently difficult to gain acceptance, enforcement and compliance with its agreed standards has been that of human rights. Although a clear international statement of human rights has been enshrined for over half a century within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, passed by the United Nations in 1948, there remains a relativist undercurrent with respect to how various governments interpret and apply human rights standards. Since 9/11, the concept of human rights has become even more nebulous as states that had been the leading champions of international human rights have begun to compromise their commitment to such ideals in deference to their national security. This paper will discuss the importance and limitations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It will trace the history of the Declaration, discuss how it has been interpreted and applied over the decades since its adoption, and consider the ways in which modern global issues pose challenges to its spirit and premise. The difficulty of achieving uniform global human rights protections, particularly in an era heavily influenced by basic security and defense concerns, vividly illustrates the more general challenge of enforcing international law among sovereign states. The UnivPost War Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is one of the earliest, and arguably most important, achievements of the United Nations. It very much reflects the international revulsion that came in the wake of the atrocities of World War II. The experience of the holocaust was a wakeup call, whereby the people of the world became keenly aware of what humans are capable of doing to one another. In a sense, the holocaust represented the rock bottom consequence of previous failures of the international community to come together in the spirit of promoting peace and human rights. Thus, an atmosphere of atonement and a desire to correct the obvious failures of prior international law to protect the most basic human dignities permeated the effort to implement the Declaration. Such post war attitudes clearly echo throughout the Declaration, particularly in the preamble. In fact, the very first two clauses of the preamble directly refer to the barbarity of which humans had been proven capable: "Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world . . . Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people" (Anonymous, 2006, para. 2 and 3). Without a doubt, the framers of the Declaration clearly sought to address the atrocities of the holocaust head on. According to the American Ambassador to Lebanon, Jeffrey D. Feltman, "The drafters of the Declaration were able to draw inspira tion from heroic efforts in the post-war period to assert the primacy of human rights and the dignity of individuals" (Ambassador Feltman speaks at the 56th anniversary, 2006, para. 3). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was far more than a reaction to a particularly dark

Essays --

The CMOS technology plays a major role on the performance of microprocessors on very large scale integrated circuit chips. The rapid growth in CMOS technology with the shrinking transistor size towards 16nm has allowed for placement of several billions of transistors on a single microprocessor chip. This also leads to reduce the delay of logic gates in the order of pico seconds. One such method to improve the performance of microprocessor is to optimize the timing performance of dynamic circuits. In this paper a full adder circuit is designed and simulated using rate sensing keeper technique with L=0.12ÃŽ ¼m technology and VDD=1.2 V for improving the timing and noise tolerance also the noise tolerance characteristics of the full adder circuit designed using rate sensing keeper is compared with twin transistor based full adder circuit. Keywords— Bias,Domino logic, noise tolerance, rate sensing, timing optimization. I. INTRODUCTION HE rapid advancement in semiconductor technology with the shrinking transistor size towards 16nm has allowed for placement of several billion transistors on a single microprocessor chip[1]. CMOS technology plays a major role on the performance of VLSI microprocessors [2].The timing performance of the microprocessor can be improved by using dynamic circuits in microprocessors [3]. However the usage of dynamic circuits in microprocessors is limited due to many challenges including transistor sizing, charge sharing, leakage current, noise immunity and environmental and semiconductor process variations etc [4].Timing optimization of dynamic circuits can be achieved through several methods such as transistor sizing, using multiple threshold voltages etc.[5],[6],[7].The aggressive scaling of transistors and interc... ... and the experimental results shows that the full adder circuit designed using rate sensing keeper transistor technique gives superior performance compared to the other alternatives such as Conditional Keeper (CKP) and current mirror-based keeper (LCR). Fig.22. Output noise Vs Vbias characteristics of full adder using Rate Sensing Keeper technique IV. CONCLUSION In this paper the performance of a full adder circuit designed using rate sensing keeper transistor technique is analyzed in detail and its performance is compared with other full adder circuits. The full adder circuit is simulated using L=0.12ÃŽ ¼m technology along with supply voltage VDD=1.2V. The experimental results shows that the full adder circuit designed using rate sensing keeper transistor technique gives superior performance compared to full adder circuits designed using conventional domino techniques.

CW Introduction

The founder of Lid was by a man named Dieter Schwartz who currently has a net worth of around $15. 2 Billion he got that success from being the founder of Lid. He is the CEO and chairman of the company and Dieter is also the CEO of the hyper market Kaufmann. The company Lid has been around for many years and they were founded in the year 1 930 when the company was founded in Germany. The first ever Lid store was opened in the year 1973 and the store started to gain a lot of consumers by the sass's.Lid then decided to branch their stores outside of Germany and as of now the store can be found in nearly every country in Europe. Lid loves to sell top quality products and sell them for the lowest prices available. The first ever UK store of Lid was established in 1 994 and they are still growing in the UK and more than 600 stores. 1 An evaluation of the strategic position of the company (500 – 600 words*) There are many different ways that Lid are trying to keep their strategic po sition of the company. This will include the many plans that Lid has for true plans and development.Which include plans such as there expansions? There have been reports that to maintain Lid's strategic position is by expanding the amount of stores they have and they soon want to have an empire of 1 500 stores and this will maintain their strategic position as more stores and thus this will mean more business. I will also include a SOOT analysis of Lid which show the strengths of the company and show the strengths and weakness of the company. Strengths in Lid include Has a good range of branded products and also has its own Bargain labelsThey usually build their places in deprived areas where cheap food and items are needed by that area and they sell items that suit most of peoples incomes Lid usually open on Sundays and holidays Is going to expand their store count to 1500 stores Weakness in Lid They are still pretty small compared to bigger brands There isn't many chain stores aro und Opportunity To gain a further stronghold and to expand in other countries like Africa and Asia Threats The increase in competition with Laid and other business meaning more intention for Lid Cost of all products PESTLE analysis for Lid an PESTLE analysis evaluates the following areas of Lid which include the following Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental. Political – The political areas that can affect Lid are as follows the government intervening with wages and having Lid have National Minimal wages.

Social Stratification in Manifesto of the Communist...

Social Stratification in Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Max Webers Class, Status and Party Social stratification is the ranking of members of society in a way that some of its members are regarded as superior and others as inferior. This theory is certainly debated in present time and was debated as far back as 1776 when Karl Marx presented his theory in his Manifesto of the Communist Party. In the 1880s, Max Weber combatted that document in his own Class, Status and Party. Karl Marx believed that social standing or rank was based solely on class position. For example, an owner of a business was regarded far above a worker in that same business. Class position would also†¦show more content†¦This can be applied to todays world; wearing so called designer labels such as Polo and Donna Karan and driving a BMW would indicate a higher style of life than wearing J.C. Penny or driving a Kia. In todays society, the Keith Page 2 people living a higher style of life usually shy away from those of a lower economic status. You do not often encounter children from wealthy Manhattan families playing with children from Harlem. The third part of Webers theory on social stratification was power, which Weber defined as the chances of having other people do what you want them to do regardless of their own wishes. Marx would not have argued with Weber about the three factors being in existence; however, he probably would state that the class of the person would determine how much status and power a person would have. Weber agreed with Marx in the fact that in a capitalistic society, class had the biggest influence on a persons position and that status and power were given more to the higher classes. Weber said, however, that there were other societies in which this was not true, such as in the Estates System of Medieval Europe and the Caste System of India. 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