| I teach in Texas. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) awards school districts for things like students earning industry IT certifications. This can be more than $1k per certification. Teachers know what will happen if they try to excel in these areas: they will be fired. Coworkers explained this to me, but I did not listen. I explained to a school board member that I was going to try to get my 9th graders certified. He replied that if even one student failed to earn their certification that I would have failed and he would have to fire me. I tried to reason with the idiot, but he made Dilbert's point haired boss seem competent. I managed to get about half of my students Microsoft certified. I left that school district in part because my life was hell there. One secretary in particular was very offended because she had to figure out how to spend the school district's money on certification exam vouchers and had to add students to a field trip to compete in an electronics competition. We took 2nd in the state, and I left the school district. Now I'm an adjunct at a community college. If you want to fix Texas Public Schools, elect competent school board members. If you want teachers to perform well, reward them instead of punishing them. When a teacher brings state money into the district, give them at least half of that money. |