Charter Schools Provide Good Model On Teacher Pay

The Washington Post
Jay Mathews
June 1, 2009

It is hard for me to find a school leader with a track record for raising student achievement who does not admire almost everything Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is doing with the D.C. schools. Yeah, I said almost. One important item on her agenda is not so popular -- merit pay for teachers.

Rhee is right when she says that the standard way of assessing and compensating teachers is a mess. It drives talented people from the field or leads them to avoid teaching in the first place. It deprives principals of vital tools for improving schools. Rhee learned this the hard way, creating the New Teacher Project to recruit and train teachers for urban schools. That nonprofit organization is releasing today a study of 12 districts that backs Rhee's point -- administrators shrink from assessing the relative quality of their teachers and tend to give nearly everybody a good evaluation.

Read more HERE.