Teacher Pay and Performance

I have no problem with the Los Angeles Unified School District linking teacher pay to performance, as long as the district differentiates between student performance and teacher performance. I’d be happy to be paid based on my performance. Student test scores and grades are often not a reflection of the grand efforts of many of our teachers’ labor each day--efforts for a student body that often rejects any attempt to better it.

STEVE FRANKLIN

Sun Valley Middle School

Los Angeles

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In his latest blast against teachers unions (i.e., teachers), cartoonist Michael Ramirez accuses us of rejecting accountability in favor of the status quo (April 2). We hate the status quo. California’s embarrassing level and method of funding schools, educational decisions driven by politics, a confusing U.S. immigration policy, a governor who thinks that teaching should be a temporary stop along the road to something better and a society that rewards entertainers above nearly all else. This is the status quo.

Teachers embrace accountability. Hold us accountable for understanding our students and teaching them what they need to know in effective, interesting and challenging ways. Hold us accountable for being role models of integrity, fairness and compassion. We will not be held accountable, though, for factors beyond our control, such as student and parent apathy, substance abuse, family dysfunction and economic status and a variety of social issues that negatively affect a student’s ability to learn.

KURT PAGE

Laguna Niguel

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I can well understand the reluctance of educators in the LAUSD to agree to merit pay. How can any instructor succeed in teaching students under the abominable conditions with which the teachers work: no air conditioning in rooms that can get up to 95 degrees; not enough textbooks; school libraries that have not bought books in 15 years; classes with 35-40 students of diverse abilities; bathrooms that have no doors on the stalls, etc.

School administrators and legislators do not value education or they would not have allowed these deplorable conditions to develop.

JESUS J. GONZALES

Oxnard Shores

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As a Los Angeles high school teacher I found it interesting reading your March 30 article, “State’s Economy to Shine in 2000, Analysts Predict.” As predicted by UCLA, California’s overall personal income will grow by 7.6% in 2000. Yet, Supt. Ramon Cortines and the school board are offering the teachers union a 6% raise tied to substantial and unacceptable restrictions of pedagogical autonomy. Thank you, Mr. Cortines and board members! You have helped me greatly on deciding if I will support a strike by the teachers union this spring.

CHRISTOPHER McCAULEY

Manhattan Beach