Houston Schools New Teacher Merit Pay Program - Will It Help or Hinder?

Measurement of student achievement through rigorous national tests has a standard in Texas for many years. Houston schools have conducted their first merit pay program for teachers in 2000.

Houston schools believe the old program was too deep and incentives unanimously passed the new model in January, making it the largest merit pay program in the nation. The officials believe the new program rewards teachers more committed to students and improvingindividual teacher's efforts. Although no research has been conducted on the impact of such programs to improve student performance, were other programs in New York, Denver and Kentucky tried with varying success.

Houston entrepreneurs who have an interest in the completion of future employees who are service providers to support $ 14.5 million of the new Houston schools "-have program.

Houston school teacher incentives are on three components:

• The first component is based on the amountimproving the public school, a test results, as with the results of 40 other schools across the state with similar demographic composition;

• The second compares student progress with the 10 Stanford Achievement Test and its Spanish equivalent for students in the same classrooms and schools, Houston

• The third component compares student progress with the national Texas assessment of knowledge and skills to demonstrate similar Houston schools classrooms.

About half of the 12,300Teachers in schools, Houston claim to have received awards in all three categories, possibly a total of $ 3000 per deserve. The 305 schools, Houston authorities are entitled to as much as $ 6,000 each earn if they can reach the best teachers. Each of the 19 schools, Houston "executive head teacher and five regional superintendents are for up to $ 25,000 in consideration.

With 210,000 children, Houston schools, the largest district in the state, and its new program is not withoutOpposition.

Teachers unions are usually charged against teachers merit programs, and the Houston Federation of Teachers is no exception. The Union represents 40 percent of the schools, teachers and Houston believes across-the-board raises and a higher wage-price for new teachers would be more successful in raising student achievement scores. Houston schools new teachers start at $ 36,050 (the lowest in the top ten counties in Texas), and the wages of current Houston schools, teachersare at the lower end of the school in the country.

Many teachers have complained that the program deals with art teachers, and other subjects not covered by the testing process. The program includes special education, preschool and kindergarten teachers who are the backbone for improving the academic performance of children from families with low incomes. In addition, many teachers believe that forcing them to participate in the testing requirement rather than focusing on teaching real academicPerformance.

The new program has also opened up old wounds and increases the tension in the final merit pay program and its effect on the test results that are the basis for a suspended recently laid fraud scandal. The Texas Education Agency investigated the Houston schools and other districts in 1999 because of suspicious test results. Houston schools approved last year found that evidence of fraud was at four schools and testing irregularities were found at sevenother. Finally, six teachers were dismissed and more clients have been demoted or reprimanded, leave the city and frustrated by the merit pay program and its ensuing crush results.

Although the new Houston schools, teacher merit pay program sounds good in theory, it seems that it has expanded in practice the same old problems with the previous program.

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The Importance of Continuing Education

During these 23 million people at the heart of an emerging society that is more inclined to present the study and learning are the other persons excluded from these learning experiences for reasons of time, cost, or even personal questions.

In recent years, the number of adults who are still with their education has increased enormously. This term "training" describes the opportunities and methods for learning new skills andAcquisition of knowledge, which is far superior to what we are taught during our formal schooling year.

Most people opt for training to further their knowledge base and also their employability.

Continuing Education vs. Traditional

In general, what we learn in all these long, arduous years of our formal education, only basic skills that are good enough to start working to help us, but not good enough to take us forward in our career, before especially with therapid changes and advances in technology, the demands for a sophisticated and well-trained workforce.

Students who are involved in continuing their education in general are working professionals who seek to further advance and promote their intellectual abilities, while still working. Since her time between studying and working full time divided, they must be very motivated to succeed. One of the most distinguishing characteristics that students whoParticipation in training is their inclination to the lessons they learn in class to relate their work.

You must have the correct and appropriate practical experience and knowledge of the issues and concerns of these special students. Students can be involved in the training, is very selective in choosing their courses. The courses, which they can freely choose in any way relevant to their work and should becan benefit from it. If the correct path is chosen, it can benefit a great both educationally and professionally.

More and more adults are now involved in the training leading to formal qualifications, who have studied them the appropriate knowledge in relation to a particular sector. In addition, training provides us with a certain pride of achievement, as we take our courses.

Provide an affordable, faster and much moreBe set "priority to the acquisition of professional or personal goals, education credentials can be presented again and everywhere as evidence of the professional studies of the individual.

The importance of "training" at work

Skilled labor will always be economic to increased productivity. Here is how the continuing benefits of the workforce:

• A skilled workforce is more productive - In these days,Skills and education are seen the main elements of the employment and earning potential of a candidate. As the economy has a need for a properly trained workforce for more than an uneducated workforce values are shifted to employers are now trying both trained and skilled workforce. The demand for training is thus doubled.

• Continuing education helps employers retain better, while remaining employees as competitive as ever - aeducated workers are more productive, so companies have now begun to recruit individuals who continue with their education. Training can be seen as a way to keep better watch, better-trained employees.

With the rapid development of information technology training is not only the physical space will be limited. Distance learning through interactive media, a large part of the training form. TheInternet is also a great role in the provision of teaching materials to the students.

A virtual course that is designed to extend a person's knowledge about the formal years of education now a reality. In terms of overall development in the area of training, we ask only one question: How far can the training?

Fighting Flu Without Big Gun

By BETSY MCKAY and CAM SIMPSON

The Obama administration, worried that tens of thousands of people could fall ill with H1N1 swine flu before a new vaccine is available later this fall, is urging Americans to adopt a series of preventive actions to slow the spread of the disease.

The emphasis on measures such as washing hands often and staying home when sick comes as schools across the country report a surge in flu-like symptoms.

More than 2,500 students at Washington State University have reported becoming ill since the semester began two weeks ago, in one of the largest school outbreaks yet. Emory University in Atlanta, which has had more than 220 ill students, set aside an empty dormitory to house several in isolation.

About 25,000 students were dismissed from 24 secondary schools Friday due to the flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The administration has been concerned that the virus would spread widely once school started and weeks before a vaccination program gets into full swing. An advisory panel to President Barack Obama warned in August of a possible scenario in which a new wave of infections could peak by mid-October.

The timing could be bad because the first doses of a new swine-flu vaccine won't be ready before Oct. 15, and the 45 million to 52 million doses expected on that date won't be enough for the roughly 159 million people the government has determined should get the vaccine first, such as pregnant women, health-care workers and people with underlying medical conditions. It also takes a couple of weeks after getting a shot to build immunity to the virus, and it still isn't clear whether most people will need one or two doses of the vaccine.

The message of prevention through basic behavioral techniques has become a mantra across the government. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have urged schools to stay open, businesses to plan for extended employee absences, hospitals to prepare for a potential surge in critically ill patients, and students to wear masks when they are sick and take disposable wipes to their dorm-room doorknobs to keep viruses from spreading.

President Obama has joined in the effort. "Cover your sneezes with your sleeve," he said at a Rose Garden event last week. "I don't want anybody to be alarmed, but I do want everybody to be prepared."

Anne Schuchat, the CDC's top official for immunization and respiratory diseases, has made multiple media appearances to press the need for proper hygiene. "We can't really completely stop transmission; what we're trying to do is reduce the spread and limit the impact."

The vast majority of cases have been mild and the recent increase in cases is "quite consistent with what we were expecting," Dr. Schuchat said. The virus also hasn't undergone any changes that would make it more deadly. But Dr. Schuchat cautioned that changes in the virus could still occur.

The stakes are high, both for public health and public confidence. The rise in infections comes as the White House is renewing its battle for a health-care overhaul amid growing skepticism about the government's role in medicine. And the success of what could become the nation's largest-ever vaccination campaign is far from assured.

Mr. Obama's personal involvement last week was meant to be "a way of saying this is serious, this is a very real issue," said a senior White House official involved in the H1N1 campaign, adding that the president's profile "raises both the visibility and also raises the importance" of the message. His involvement will be periodic, but important in the weeks and months ahead, the senior official said.

To get the hygiene message across in the absence of a vaccine, the Department of Health and Human Services is using its flu Web site, www.flu.gov, to sponsor a YouTube-style contest for public-service announcements focused on prevention; the winner will get $2,500. Finalists include one video showing a man in a bright yellow hazmat suit on a date and going about other mundane parts of daily life.

Three government agencies are teaming up with Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization that produces Sesame Street, for an ad campaign featuring Elmo that encourages children to wash their hands and sneeze into the bend of their arms. Health and Human Services staff also taped ads with 41 Republican and Democratic members of Congress promoting planning and prevention to offer to local markets.

The goal, says HHS spokeswoman Jenny Backus, is "to make everyone a messenger," from congressmen to neighbors and friends. The effort takes a page from recent presidential campaigns and corporate marketing efforts, she said.

The effort reflects the priority the government has put on preparedness following 9/11, the threat of a deadly pandemic avian flu, and the political fallout from Hurricane Katrina. "After Katrina they learned that reassuring people and turning out wrong does enormous harm, but warning people and turning out wrong does minor harm," said Peter Sandman, a risk-communications expert who has advised government health officials in the past.

A campaign to urge Americans to get vaccinated for both seasonal and the new H1N1 flu is also in the works, with some efforts starting this week.

It can be hard to keep the message coordinated and controlled. In late August, health officials scrambled to calm the public after the presidential advisory panel warned that as many as 90,000 people could die in the U.S. this winter from the new flu. The report was careful to couch the forecast as a "possible" or "plausible" scenario, and officials later stressed that that dire outcome was unlikely if the virus remains mild.

The administration's plan is a tweaked version of the strategy it implemented when the virus first emerged last spring, as officials held a total of 24 press briefings within two weeks.

While some critics later said the administration overreacted with the barrage of high-level attention, there were no such worries at the White House. "On a public health issue, to err on the side of overreaction is never a bad idea," the senior White House official said.

Write to Betsy McKay at betsy.mckay@wsj.com and Cam Simpson at cam.simpson@wsj.com