In the past, incentivizing better public school teaching has been an issue as a result of the strength of teaching unions. Often pay-rate is standardized, benefits are standardized…almost all variables that are usually used for the purposes of incentivization are generally standardized for public school teachers. However, as Maddie Ladner wrote about in her blog post, the the Board of District of Columbia Boarding Schools (DCPS) is trying to change the way teachers are evaluated with something called IMPACT. Through IMPACT, teachers will be evaluated not only on the grades of their students, but more so on how well students understand what is being taught as well as the teachers’ involvement in the school and overall professionalism.
The new system represents a stark contrast from both the previous system within the DCPS as well as the generally accepted norms for public schools across North America. As Maddie mentioned, as a result of the introduction of the new system teachers who are generally thought less of are choosing to quit as they expect to be fired as a result of the new system. In that way the system is seeing immediate results through the loss of some of the lesser teachers.
What makes the IMPACT initiative so interesting is not necessarily that it’s revolutionary in terms of incentivization of workers on the whole, but instead that it’s applying business motivation tactics to teachers. That is something that has not been previously explored in North American public schools. As has been discussed in class in terms of organizational culture, motivation is key. There is no benefit to having an absentee workforce, which is why companies are constantly trying to find new and better ways to motivate their employees. Now that same process can be applied to the public school system and increase education on the whole.
Sources:
Maddie Ladner’s Blog – https://blogs.ubc.ca/maddieladner/2013/11/15/teacher-evaluations/
Standford News – http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/october/dee-teacher-assessments-101713.html
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