While circulating petitions to refer HB 1234, the Governor's education reform plan, to a public vote, I've heard more than one neighbor speak of the need to make public education operate more like a business. Rep. Fred Romkema, one of…
Posts tagged as “merit pay”
"Hi, I'm collecting signatures to refer Governor Daugaard's education bill to a public vote. Would you like to sign?" That simple pitch has gotten me 243 signatures on my HB 1234 referendum petitions so far. About half the time, that's…
Uh oh: looks like I'd better keep working out... and buy some neckties that match! Daniel Hamermesh, an economist at the University of Texas-Austin, has conducted a series of studies on the role that appearance plays in the workplace. He…
A fellow teacher brought up a complication to HB 1234, Governor Daugaard's education reform package, that hadn't occurred to me yet: under the new teacher evaluation and merit pay policies, how hard will it be to place student teachers? Right…
Governor Dennis Daugaard has proposed that South Dakota increase the frequency of standardized testing of students from the current NCLB regime of once-a-year tests for grades 3, 4, 5, 8, and 11 to tests at the start, middle, and end…
At the District 31 crackerbarrel in Spearfish yesterday, an audience member asked whether the Legislature will base bonuses for state workers on merit and limit them to the best 20% of employees the way HB 1234 does to teachers. Even…
Josh Verges's headline, "Panel Guts Education Reform Bill Before Sending to Senate," would lead readers to believe that House Bill 1234 is now a far cry from the atrocity introduced by the Governor one month ago today and the ugly…