Happy Hour Roundup
Obama To Teachers' Union: I Support Merit Pay
Speaking today before the National Education Association, Barack Obama grabbed directly onto a third rail of education policy with the teachers' unions by endorsing scales of merit pay for teachers, based upon the results they can produce. At the same time, Obama endorsed across-the-board pay raises for teachers as a good thing in and of itself, paired with the increased accountability and incentives for student improvement. "I think there should be ways for us to work with the NEA, with teachers' unions, to figure out a way to measure success," the candidate said to the 9,000-strong crowd in Philadelphia. "I want to work with teachers. I'm not going to do it to you, I'm going to do it with you."
Edwards, Biden and Kucinich Court Steelworkers
John Edwards, Joe Biden and Dennis Kucinich spoke today in Cleveland, before a gathering of 600 activists in the United Steelworkers of America union. The three candidates all gave their takes on how they would work to reverse the loss of manufacturing jobs in America. Edwards touted the union's Blue Green Alliance with the Sierra Club, seeking to promote new jobs in alternative energy, while Biden called for new investments in the country's infrastructure. Kucinich spoke of his family's brief homelessness when he was a child, and the hope that the manufacturing sector brought to them, and called for a comprehensive national industrial policy to protect domestic industry.
Giuliani Will Spend Burgeoning Pocketbook In More States
Rudy Giuliani's top campaign manager said today on a conference call that they will begin devoting more resources to states that do not have the earliest primaries, such as California. Giuliani campaign manager Michael DuHaime also said Giuliani, who is moderate on social issues, would be able to compete against a Democrat in some traditionally blue states. "We're very confident right now that we are in a very, very strong place," DuHaime said.
ABC Looks At New Mexico Marijuana Program Signed By Richardson
ABC News takes look at the New Mexico medical marijuana bill signed by Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson earlier this year, putting the state in conflict with federal law. A key distinction of the New Mexico program: The state itself will be organizing the private cultivation and distribution of the herb.
GOPer Who Debates The Definition Of Rape To Challenge Johnson In South Dakota
Republicans have recruited their first candidate, South Dakota state Rep. Joel Dykstra, to run against Sen. Tim Johnson, who has been absent from the Senate for 7 months while recovering from a brain hemorrhage. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has already begun attacking Dykstra, digging up a quote from last year regarding exceptions to an abortion ban: "I think 'rape and incest' is a buzzword. It's a bit of a throwaway line and not everybody who says that really understands what that means. How are you going to define that?"
Poll: Three-Way Tie In Edwards' Home State Of North Carolina
A new poll from Democratic North Carolina firm Public Policy Polling shows the Demo race in John Edwards' home state turning into a three-way tie. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are both at 27%, while Edwards is at a statistically indistinguishable 26%. On the Republican side, Fred Thompson easily leads the pack with 34%, followed by Rudy Giuliani's 15%.
In New Hampshire, Keough Looking At Run For Governor
Former New Hampshire state Senator Bruce Keough (R) is considering a run against popular Democratic Governor John Lynch in 2008. "He seems to be spending most of his time responding to initiatives driven by outside groups," Keough said about Lynch, "whether it's the national labor movement, the gay rights movement or the abortion rights movement." Keough previously ran for governor in 2002, placing second in a three-way primary, and is currently the state chairman for Mitt Romney's campaign.
AP: Conservatives Link Romney To Marriott Hotels' Porn Sales
The Associated Press has picked up the story of conservatives upset about the apparent lack of leadership by Mitt Romney, who has spoken out against pornography, for not doing more to stop distribution of hardcore movies by Marriott Hotels while on its board. "Marriott is a major pornographer," said Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values, an anti-pornography group based on Ohio. "And even though he may have fought it, everyone on that board is a hypocrite for presenting themselves as family values when their hotels offer 70 different types of hardcore pornography."
Its interesting how different the Obama piece reads when this quote is included
It goes from "truth-telling electoral suicide" to more evidence that Obama just might be able to create the type of consensus on this issue he's promised in general.
That quote is taken from this article
July 5, 2007 7:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
[on merit pay for teachers:]
Are you absolutely certain it's a good idea?
I was at a stockholders' meeting that quite predictably turned into a shouting match. The management had looted the company while the stockholders took gas over management failures. At one point a matter of bonuses awarded to management for performance on top of a truckload of incentive options awards was brought up. The chairman of the board said everything had been taken into consideration in awarding the bonuses and options over and above a fine salary. Obviously there was a need to do something for executives whose minimal stockholdings had turned to dust.
It isn't always that bad but I have seen little evidence that superior performance is rewarded. You might recall that Bush was rewarded with a second term not requiring intervention by Scalia for a heckuva job in his first term.
Truly superior performance is often rewarded with termination.
Are you absolutely, positively certain that merit pay is a reward for superior performance rather than a recognition of political skill?
Best, Terry
July 5, 2007 8:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I assume all of those many teachers who get regular merit pay increases will drop by and discuss this with you - there are many, many thousands of them, I assume. It kind of makes me wonder why Obama would be talking about merit pay for teachers as if it were a new thing. Could it be that the merit pay programs that so many teachers now have is really a political pay program?
Hoppy in Sacramento
July 5, 2007 9:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am not certain merit-pay is a good thing...in fact, the opposite is true. I'm pretty divided on the issue.
However, I am certain that it could be a good thing, if implemented properly.
This is coming, btw, as a former teacher myself (first job out of college, as a matter of fact).
The important thing about it was, I thought, his call for teachers to stop sitting on their hands demanding the idea (which is politically popular) go away, and instead sit down at the table and help lawmakers hammer out a policy that will actually work to reward good teaching, and not just politicking.
On an unrelated noted, the piece also makes it seem like his whole speech went over poorly and all he did was some "truth telling". However, he also demonstrated that he could get a standing ovation and give out the red meat with the best of them:
video
July 5, 2007 9:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
How could the judgment be other than subjective?
No matter how you set up objective tests you are going to fail to recognize some and penalize others in favor of average or below average performance at times.
A fer instance:
- If you award bonuses to teachers for some preponderance of students passing a regents test here in New York, you will find:
A) Favored teachers getting the brighter students.
and
B) Teachers training the students to pass tests rather than learning.
Once there was an outcry because it was found a substantial number of students could not fill out employment forms properly. Immediately schools started training students to fill out employment forms rather than aiming for the basic literacy that allows the graduate to fill out employment forms.
"Life is unfair," proclaimed JFK. Indeed it is. Not a particularly good idea to make it more unfair I think though JFK didn't see the problem.
Best, Terry
July 5, 2007 9:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice.
Thank you.
I may disagree with Obama at times but I always appreciate someone speaking up intelligently for what he believes in. He could even be right. :-)
Best, Terry
July 5, 2007 9:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Merit pay" is one of those catch-phrases that people who don't really understand the realities of the classroom use, IMO. That, or they are ideologically inclined for merit pay.
What happens WAY more often then it should is that young teachers get "stuck" teaching the hardest classes, while the older veterans get to teach the cushy AP classes. It's inherently unfair to compare the results of a teacher (or school) that teaches "at risk" students to one who teaches primarily to students who have the support network at home to help, or are just insanely smart. It's unfair. i'd have to read Obama's full policy before making judgements, but the current system combined with pure merit pay is inherently flawed. I'm pretty sure Obama has more of a clue than that.
July 5, 2007 9:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
On another note, bookings at Marriott Hotels have surged....
July 5, 2007 10:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think what Obama was asking was that teachers work with him to find a way to do a merit pay system that actually rewards merit. Obama seldom seems to offer a pre-decided plan for any problem. He likes to get people together to work out solutions themselves. That is one of the things I like about him.
I admit I can't see a way to fairly administer a merit system. It is hard enough to do merit pay systems for white collar workers, where each faces very similar work problems, but teachers have such widely varying challenges it would be quite an accomplishment to come up with a good system for them.
Hoppy in Sacramento
July 5, 2007 10:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have libra-ish (see-saw) feelings about teachers' merit pay. It *might* work, if the kids were tracked differently. Ie, if *the same group of kids* tests at 60percentile in grade 4 but at 80percentile in grade 5, it would be reasonable to assume that the 5th graders had a better teacher, no?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"AP: Conservatives Link Romney To Marriott Hotels' Porn Sales"
I found it to be a misleading subject-line. Expected the paragraph to talk about conservatives bringing up proof that Romney owned a porn films rental firm and that's where his money was coming from :) There's plenty enough *truth* to nail the b...ds to the wall with; *we* don't have to resoort to their innuendo-driven tactics.
July 5, 2007 11:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
A quick google shows Ms. Nelson is a huge Obama supporter. Lots of pictures of her at Obama rallies holding up an Obama signs. Same quick google shows nothing for other candidates.
July 5, 2007 11:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Terryhallinan wrote: ' Favored teachers getting the brighter students.'
I would add that favored teachers might even be forced to 'get the brighter students'. That is what happened to me years ago during my practice teaching of seventh graders in a two track school system. I asked for the 'slow track' kids, because I wanted to challenge the whole idea of the track system. After nine weeks, my 'slow track' kids scored higher as a class than the 'fast track' kids. I had been determined to demonstrate that tested IQ was a faulty measure of potential. I figured that 1]taking the psychological pressure off the kids [we laughed a lot about mistakes] and 2]relating to them with an assumption that they were bright might make a difference. My methods surely did make a difference. But the outcome was that I was forced to take the 'fast track' kids because the school adminstration was more concerned about those fast track kids' parents' reactions than about the real significance of what I had demonstrated. I got my teaching certificate, but went on to study another profession, being as damped down by that experience as I supposed those slow track kids were most of their young lives.
July 6, 2007 12:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good grief! There is no "perfect" solution that will deal with every little thing until we come up with robotic humans. You're going to have the dumb-a$$ super or even a teacher who gets a undeserved pay increase with or without a merit pay system. It will not be "perfect".
I'm willing to try to progress towards a solution that makes things a bit better and doesn't hang up on "it's not gonna be perfect so let's do nothing".
July 6, 2007 6:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, Donna, for a wonderful story.
Were you looking for an Einstein? :-)
When Herman Einstein asked the school principal what the principal thought young Albert should study, the principal replied it didn't matter. Albert would never amount to anything anyway.
Later while Albert was scheming to find a way to escape from school, he was saved from his calculations by being booted out.
I used to ask learning disability teachers how they would like to have an Albert Einstein in their class. Only two knew what I was asking.
Good teachers can indeed make a world of difference. Sure did eventually for Albert. But the tracking of students is a - shall we say - imperfect science. It is especially true of IQ tests that can hardly be a great measure of intelligence when no one knows what intelligence is.
Thanks again, Donna.
Best, Terry
July 6, 2007 7:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
I favor doing nothing when the cure is worse than the disease. :-)
How about we work on making the occupation of teacher an honored profession with good pay rather than trying to cherry pick teachers that are better than the average?
Best, Terry
July 6, 2007 8:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nothing wrong with that title. It's to the point being made by "conservatives."
As to the subject of Mormons and porn, statistics prove that Mormons love their porn.
Utah is the leading consumer of porn per capita in the US.
July 6, 2007 8:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, Terry, isn't increasing teacher pay doing "something"? Tell you what, I could settle for increasing teacher pay and actually having a union that supported firing teachers that don't belong there--like the one I personally heard tell a student in her class, "You're worthless; I tried to teach your mother and she was just as worthless as you." Neither this teacher, nor her union, saw anything "wrong" with this statement. Neither denied it was said--apparently the content had nothing really "wrong" with it.
It's called trade-offs, and that's what has to happen instead of these idealistic statements you're throwing out there.
July 6, 2007 9:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
As I said, I am a former teacher (and was a young one, stuck with the slower students, no office, lots of extra-curriculars, etc), so I fully understand the impediments. You don't need to condescend to me or imply I don't understand the realities of the classroom; I lived those realities. I worked the 80-90 hour weeks, waking up at 5am every day so I'd have time to grade and lesson plan before extra help that was itself before the actual day started, so I'd have time to coach after school.
As for this complaint:
You actually do not have to read the full policy, just read the two articles linked to (1 in the round-up, 1 I linked to) and read these quotes:
Seems pretty obvious that he understands those complaints.
July 6, 2007 9:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Where does the money come from? There's the rub. $2 billion a week in Iraq with hardly a peep. Any president that tries to get a penny more for education will be buried under a mountian of sh*t. Unless dems control a 60% majority in congress and the presidency the money won't be there.
July 6, 2007 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's not subjective merit pay increases, which was my beef.
Best, Terry
July 6, 2007 10:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for pointing that out.
Do you find it shocking that people who agree with Obama's ideas and policy positions are supporters?
Or are you suggesting that we should ignore anything said by Obama supporters and listen only to Obama critics?
July 6, 2007 10:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Do you find it shocking that people who agree with Obama's ideas and policy positions are supporters?
Or are you suggesting that we should ignore anything said by Obama supporters and listen only to Obama critics?"
I report, you decide.
July 6, 2007 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Adopting the Fox News motto, I see. There's some deliciously apropos subtext there.
July 6, 2007 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink