Natchez-Adams School District officials are on the right track with initial plans to incentivize better test scores by providing a bonus for teachers who improve statewide tests.

While the move may seem to some school district critics like a last-ditch effort to improve the failing schools, the idea seems logical to us.

Tying performance to compensation works well in the private sector and would seem a step in the right direction here.

Teachers whose students managed to achieve an “A” rating would receive an additional $6,000.

That would seem like a small price to pay if the plan truly improved test scores and brought the level of education up. If nothing changes, no additional money would be spent.

While this is a step in the right direction, we encourage the district to go a step further. Instead of merely providing cash incentives for teachers who are successful in raising test scores, the district also needs a plan for weeding out any teachers who, quite frankly, are not good at what they do.

The current education system is far too steeped in tradition and fairness to all teachers — regardless of qualifications.

Most of us can point back to our own educations or those of our children and name one or two superstar teachers whose pay could probably have been doubled and the amount still not been sufficient to reward them for their talents.

On the other hand, we could all likely point to others who were merely taking home a check and really lacked any passion for what they did each day.

While we can all point to a myriad of factors that affect a child’s ability to learn — many of which are outside the classroom — one of the most controllable factors to improve learning is by improving the quality and passion for the people standing in front of that child and delivering the information.

Even a small improvement across the board in teacher quality could make a big impact in the education of our community’s children.