Bamboozled

I was reading through the Star Tribune today, The Minneapolis newspaper, when I came across this nifty and exciting headline:

Mpls. school board tries bonus as a carrot for accountability

Excellent.  A start!  Not the end, but a start.

The reason I say a start and not the end goal is that I would employ the carrot AND the stick.  I would entice teachers to achieve better results by giving out money to teachers who achieve better results.

AND.

And I would fire those teachers that performed at the bottom of the pool.

Fire ’em.

That’s my life here at the office.  Bonus or layoff.  I fail to see how such a system that generates massive productivity and innovation improvements couldn’t be used to promoted massive productivity and innovation in the education sector.

So yeah, I was excited about the start.

Then I read the very next sentance:

Minneapolis Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson’s pay could increase more than 15 percent if she meets goals such as narrowing the achievement gap.

What the hell?

Incent the TEACHERS.

The rest will follow.

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