Basing pay on performance as it relates to GT education is often even more misleading. The vast majority of incentive / performance pay is based on standard performance tests, many of which the material is focusing on a standard range of age appropriate questions. This of course works poorly when testing GT students who aren't so standard, their improvement is often in areas / subjects not yet approached by "standard" students.
Incentive pay by improvement alone is even more tricky. Teachers then want the student groups with the greatest potential for improvement on standardized tests, leaving those students with the least potential for improvement on standardized tests with what is remaining for teachers.
With mass public school budget problems, it's pretty typical that the best person for the job isn't the one hired. Most public schools when looking for new administration are hiring those fresh out of college with little or no actual teaching experience....they're a lot easier on the budget than the teacher with 10-20 years of experience who went back to school to get their Masters in educational administration.
Contrary to popular belief, tenured teachers can be let go, there is just a specific process that needs to happen including consultation and observing the teacher for progress / lack of progress over a period of 1-2 years. Most administration though fails to do proper observation and is unwilling to put forth the effort or time to follow the process and instead just look the other way.
