When it comes to improving student performance, the primary focus should be on teachers. Match low achievers with quality teachers, research says, for the fastest and best improvement.

Testing is a part of life. Most professions require some sort of test and you only get so many tries. But a News Station Investigation shows - when it comes to teaching or running a school, for thousands of North Texas educators its try, try and try again…and again.

Test scores, already used to determine how the state grades its schools and whether teachers receive bonus pay, would play a larger role in decisions to keep or fire teachers under legislation awaiting a vote in the Texas Senate.

Sen. Kyle Janek should be applauded for voting for Senate Bill 1643, a proposal to improve public education by giving teachers the tools they need to be effective in the classroom.

Public education is one of the few industries that deny management the ability to evaluate employees annually so that the top performers are rewarded and the ineffective ones dismissed.

Incentive pay for teachers is a proven method to attract and keep quality teachers in the classroom. Paying all teachers the same regardless of performance discourages effective teachers from joining or staying in the profession.

A vote by the Texas House to do away with our teacher incentive pay program, enacted in HB 1 less than one year ago, is a huge leap backward in our work to improve public education.

Every Texan wants the 4.5 million public schoolchildren in this state to get a good education. Unfortunately, a vote by the Texas House attempting to do away with our newly enacted teacher incentive pay program is a huge leap backward in our work to improve public education.

Last year, Texas lawmakers made history by passing the largest teacher incentive pay program in the country. Based on results from successful programs in other states, legislators invested $560 million in the program. That averages about $1,000 per teacher every year.