Paul Thomas here describes how Mick Zais, state superintendent of South Carolina, misleads the public about the condition of education in his state, about how schools succeed, and what is needed to help them improve.
Having found a high-poverty district that has higher-than-expected test scores, Zais uses this district to push the corporate reform agenda: Success is all about merit pay and “no excuses.”
A great teacher can supply 18 months of “knowledge” in only one academic year, as measured by standardized tests, which we know are great ways to assess “knowledge.”
This is the usual reformy nonsense, which has never stood up to scrutiny.
Paul Thomas taught high school for 18 years in South Carolina and is now preparing teachers at Furman University in South Carolina.
He is an amazingly prolific scholar, and his deep experience informs his scholarship.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If they could find these ‘great teachers’ who could somehow overcome the human nature of the average student, and motivate them or impart 1.5 times the rate, most likely they would want 2.0 the pay. Hence 1.5 / 2.0 = .75 the dollar per unit knoledge, which is a worse value proposition than hiring an average teacher at a 1.0/1.0 ratio. So from a financial perspective, ‘great teachers’ could well be a bad investment.
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Funny how the media will not investigate. They just publish and hope their source is speaking truth.
Paul Thomas needs to send this to investigation into newspapers.
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Please tell me Mick Zais has a Ph.D. so I can call him “Dr. Zais.”
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