WHOSE MERIT REWARDED? TEST SCORES NOT ONLY MEASURE OF TEACHERS' - OR PARENTS' - WORTH.

Byline: Rachelle Lopez Local View

AS an educator, I find myself increasingly frustrated with talk of linking my pay to how well my students perform on standardized tests.

Prior to the No Child Left Behind Act, scores for different populations within schools were separated out and evaluated in isolation. With the new legislation, all scores are lumped together. Students learning the English language, students with learning disabilities and other students with various special needs are evaluated right alongside my students who speak English as their first language and who have no special needs. Their scores for this year are compared with their scores from the previous year, and this translates each year into an average growth for my class.

In a merit-pay system, it is this score that would be used to determine my pay scale, increases to my pay and my tenure.

I have heard many people say that we need more accountability in education and that we need a system wherein teachers are held accountable for how well or how much their students learn. Our governor says he wants state funds to go directly to our classrooms and those who care most about children's education. These are all reasons why merit pay is a topic of conversation - among people who are not educators.

As a teacher, I am observed in my classroom by my administrator throughout the school year. I am reviewed, evaluated and assisted where need be. I have several professional performance-plan meetings to make sure I am pacing properly, differentiating my instruction and providing ongoing assessment to make sure my kids get what they need.

I teach the content standards as mandated by the state. I am required to attend professional-development workshops, both at the district level and the state level, as a requirement of maintaining my credential to teach. I also must pursue higher education in order to make more money and compensate for the cost-of-living increase my district cannot afford to pay me because of budget cuts at the state level. There is a system in place wherein I am required to grow as a professional and be the best teacher I can be.

Education is supposed to be a partnership between parents and educators, so why is all of the responsibility for student success placed on my shoulders? Kids spend about five-plus hours with me a day. What about the other 18-plus hours? Where is the accountability for parents?

Why are parents not held accountable for making sure their children are doing their homework and not ``vegging out'' in front of television or a video game? We garnish the wages of deadbeat dads who don't take care of their kids. Why don't we make parents pay a fee when they don't show up for conferences? Or hold parents who work long hours and come home to latchkey kids, or allow their kids to spend all day in a day-care facility being raised by strangers, accountable for neglecting the social, emotional and intellectual needs of their children?

Shouldn't parents of children with severe behavioral issues who disrupt the learning of everyone else in the class be held accountable for establishing structure and discipline in the home, to ensure success in the school environment? And what about parents who have recently immigrated to this country and do not have the English academic skills to support their children's learning in the home?

Conversely, why don't we compensate parents of gifted and talented kids? Or give monetary bonuses to parents whose children score as proficient or advanced on such tests? Or reward parents who have ample reading materials in the home? Why don't parents get a raise every time they take their kids to the library or bookstore?

Why? Because the idea of basing parents' pay on the success of their child as a student is as absurd as basing my pay as a teacher on student achievement derived solely from one test.

If we truly are all in this together, and we are all doing what we can with our resources, can we not find a better system of reform? Why are we not looking at the exceedingly high standards placed on kids these days? Why are we fooling ourselves into thinking every kid can and will achieve a certain standard of excellence? Is the bell curve no longer a valid representation of the trends in education - an average score flanked by both high and low scores?

The No Child Left Behind Act assumes that all kids are capable of the same things and have the same skills - and that no children have deficiencies within them. Merit pay reinforces this kind of thinking. Aren't we all really good at some things and not so good at others? I don't understand why we don't offer these kids who don't or can't do well in school other opportunities to succeed and find the things they are good at. Instead we test, test, test and expect the same level of achievement from everyone- and search for someone to blame when kids' test scores don't live up to our expectations.