Letter: ‘Pay for performance’ is an unworkable idea

Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007 | 6:59 a.m.

There was much with which I agreed in Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes' guest Where I Stand column on Sunday. However, I part from Dr. Rulffes regarding "pay for performance."

If the district is underpaying teachers now - and suffering annual teacher shortages numbering in the hundreds - how does he imagine that "pay for performance" is the solution to this problem? How does he expect us teachers to buy in? What's more, as a 12-year veteran of the district, I resent the implication that teachers haven't been performing.

Teachers are not responsible for the hundreds of classrooms each year that do not have a full-time, licensed teacher - hiring teachers is the district's responsibility.

However, it is certainly the teachers who are stuck cleaning up the mess: Prep periods that should be spent on planning and grading are instead being sold to "cover" classes with no teachers, and time and energy that should be spent teaching this year's material are instead spent teaching skills and content that weren't taught last year to about 8,500 kids who experienced a succession of substitute teachers.

With all due respect, if Dr. Rulffes wants to implement pay for performance, he should begin with himself and his administration. They can start by offering salaries that will ensure that each and every classroom has a full-time licensed teacher. When that happens, then I and my colleagues will be willing to consider pay for performance.

Gregory Grant, Las Vegas