Why you should vote ‘no’ on Measure 60

Oregon’s Measure 60 is an initiative introduced by Bill Sizemore that will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Measure 60’s goal is to mandate basing Oregon state teachers’ pay raises on classroom performance. In other words: Vote no. Here is why:

Measure 60 is vague and will have bad consequencesSection 1 of Measure 60 states: “Teacher pay raises and job security shall be based on job performance. (a) After the effective date of this 2008 Act, pay raises for public school teachers shall be based upon each teacher’s classroom performance and not related or connected to his or her seniority. If a school district reduces its teaching staff, the district shall retain the teachers who are most qualified to teach the specific subjects, which they will be assigned to teach. A determination as to which teacher is most qualified shall be based upon each teacher’s past classroom experience successfully teaching the specific subject(s) or class, as well as his or her academic training in the relevant subject matter.”

How would you define performance in the classroom and who would judge? One of the fundamental problems with Measure 60 is that merit is undefined. For Oregon, this can only mean one thing: trouble.

Assuming test scores will be the only merit by which performance is measured, this will create too many problems, because not all schools are on the same educational level as, say, Lake Oswego. Having grades and scores reflect whether a teacher is good or bad in unrealistic, on top of the proven fact that standardized tests have shown (No Child Left Behind, people) limited success in demonstrating a student’s ability or mastery of a subject.

One can perform in the business world and what reflects of their effort is how that performance is measured. On the other hand, performance in the classroom is different. Teachers are responsible for facing students with different socioeconomic backgrounds, the contributions of parents–or lack thereof–as well as the quality of teaching materials and the educational background of the population in which they are teaching.

In business, if you find yourself failing, you can always seek out a successful enterprise. For teachers, if test scores were the only measure, the only way they could keep their job is if they find only the brightest test-taking students. Could you imagine? What would happen to the students who actually need the best teachers in order to learn?

Measure 60 is unfair to students and teachersBill Sizemore’s merit-pay proposal is not the best solution to the education system. Merit pay would punish teachers who take some of the most difficult and important jobs of today–such as teaching special education students, English language learners and those working in high poverty schools.

There are a higher number of these students entering Oregon schools each year and Measure 60 only eliminates the opportunity for them to be taught by the best (as in most well-paid) teachers, because these are the same students who also tend to get lower scores on standardized tests.

After all, if we base teacher pay on test scores, who will want to teach the students who need help the most? It’s the students with learning disabilities or those from abusive homes who need our best (as in most dedicated) teachers the most.

Measure 60 results in more testing and less learningSimilar to Bush’s No Child Left behind Act, Measure 60 will rely on standardized testing.

This will mean that teachers will spend more time preparing students to do well on these tests, since the student’s performance will determine their pay. This will also result is students lacking the experience to actually learn and absorb the subject the teacher is assigned to teach in the classroom.

Instead of students thinking, solving problems and engaging in hands-on learning in the classroom, they will be forced to take more tests that will never show any impact on the subject they were supposed to be instructed on.

Measure 60 has been rejected by Oregon beforeIn 2000, a similar ballot failed in Oregon, by nearly 60 percent of Oregonians voting no. Also, Bill Sizemore, the author of Measure 60 has been found by a jury for engaging in forgery and fraud in the signature gathering process.

He misleads Oregon voters and has no background in education–which is just another reason why you should vote no on Measure 60.

Measure 60 is just another ballot measure that will cost millions of dollars a year to implement. With the stock market and the U.S. economy getting worse everyday, this is just more bad news. The money that this measure would use should instead be spent on providing better school supplies, hiring more teachers with a fair salary and adding programs to schools, such as art and music, that have been cut in the past.