Meritorious Conduct

31 Nancy Flanagan 2008 Meritorious Conduct Nancy Flanagan, who <a href="http://www.teacherleaders.org/node/746">blogs</a> for the Teacher Leaders Network, also contributes to the <a href="http://educationpolicyblog.blogspot.com/">Education Policy Blog</a>. In this May post, Flanagan analyzes two recent commentaries on performance or merit pay--a James Starkey article in Ed Week and a statement by Gerald Tirozzi, National Association of Secondary School Principals executive director, that the organization does not endorse performance pay for principals (although the statement includes a template of factors that could be used to assess principal performance). Flanagan uses Tirozzi's comments and Starkey's assertion that “ProComp [Denver’s performance pay plan] and similar programs arise from the assumption that teachers could work harder, and I simply reject that notion," to flesh out the contradictory attitudes and assumptions--mainly assumptions that automatically link performance to standardized test scores--around performance pay."  Flanagan moves from analyzing obstacles to productive talk about performance pay to making some recommendations of her own about how it could work. "We should not offer performance pay to teachers under the assumption that they will work harder for more money," she condlcudes. "We should offer performance pay to outstanding teachers and educational leaders because they deserve it." Flanagan, N. (2008). Meritorious conduct. Education policy blog. Retrived 19 May 2008. http://educationpolicyblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/meritorious-conduct.html http://educationpolicyblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/meritorious-conduct.html