Life School Balance

I'm working on an oral history project that involves interviewing my father about his life - I'm focusing on his schooling, at least for this part of the project, but it's funny how the important things in his life seem to have happened outside of school.

Which brings me back to the STAR Program in Florida that rewards teachers whose students score in the top 5% of the FCAT. Governor Christ wants to base the pay raises on other factors, such as principal reviews. Great. However, this article refers to Jones High School, in Orlando, that has been unable to bring their scores above "F" for the past five years. I don't know how much the school can do to bring up any one child's test scores, beyond hiring good teachers. School is not the only influential factor in a person's life; there's a whole world influencing their learning. And look at the income level of Jones students and Boone (a high school in a more affluent neighborhood) students... so the teachers may be doing good work, raising test scores, but their students have less stable home lives, or are working to support their families, and so they don't get a raise.

I believe in merit pay... but I think that we've got to find a nuanced, refined way of instituting it.