Performance Based Teacher Pay

Performance Based Teacher Pay

  Performance-based pay plans for teachers is defined as extra financial pay that is awarded to teachers based on their performance inside and outside of the classroom.  This pay can be awarded based on several different factors, but for teachers it is awarded based on their impact on test scores and student achievement levels.  There has been a long line of examples of performance-based pay throughout history dating back as early as 1710.  During this time, England based its teacher salaries on test scores in the three main areas of reading, writing, and arithmetic.  In 1862, England incorporated this type of pay plan in its Revised Education Code and it remained a part of its education code for more than thirty years.  Performance-based pay disappeared because of its negative effects on education in the 1890s.  Canada implemented a similar performance-based pay in its education system in 1876, but it also encountered the same negative effects and it dropped the reward system in 1883.  Performance-based pay movement did not make it to the United States until 1969.  The federal government adopted this program to help close the achievement gaps between black and white students.  Different states tried to implement paying teacher bonuses based on state standardized test scores over the past several decades, but some states have retired the idea because the effects on student achievement and teacher bonuses were said to be inconclusive.

           

 The idea of performance-based pay has re-emerged with President Obama’s administration.  “The Obama administration has offered states billions of federal stimulus dollars if they agree to change the way teachers are paid, evaluated, and trained.  Performance pay is a big part of that push, and states including Colorado, Louisiana, and New York have responded by passing laws promising to tie teacher evaluation and pay to how well students perform academically.”(Goldstein, 2010)

        

The impact Performance-based Pay, or Merit Pay, can have on our schools can be as different as the students that teachers teach in their classrooms every day.  The original idea of this incentive program was to encourage teachers to go above and beyond the normal daily duties to make sure that each student grows and achieves academic success.  Teachers that exhibit these good qualities and produce good results receive extra pay for their work.  Education reformers argue that merit pay will give encouragement to good teachers and drive away bad ones, and thus improve under-performing public schools.(Malanga, 2001)  Many government officials and scholars believe that merit pay can have a positive impact on the school system.  They believe that by offering extra pay, schools will be able to fill hard to staff positions at at-risk schools, schools will be able to fill hard to staff subject areas like math and science, and special needs, will allow schools to offer compensation for teachers taking on leadership roles as mentors for other teachers, will encourage teachers to stay in the classroom, and finally this money would be given to teachers who complete professional development programs, attain a degree, or seek additional certification.

              Other educational platforms argue that teacher pay for performance does not work and does more harm to the teaching profession and student learning than good.  Dianne Ravitch, who is an esteemed educator, author, and historian of education said that she believes merit pay bonuses will “have been obtained by paying scant attention to history, geography, civics, the arts, science, literature, foreign languages, and all the other subjects needed to develop smarter individuals, better citizens, and people who are prepared for the knowledge-based economy of the twenty-first century (Ravitch, 2009).     She also believes that merit pay does not take all factors that affect a student’s test score into accountability.  Students do spend a majority of their day inside the walls of the school building; however, students are also affected by their ability and motivation level, their home situations, the way their day began that day, etc.  Merit Pay is based solely on the teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom based on one test given at the end of the course.  There are numerous other ways to assess a teacher’s effectiveness with a student and Merit Pay does not take any of these into consideration but in the meantime, these bonuses are costing taxpayers millions of dollars and there has been no proof of their validity.

            Throughout the many trial runs of performance-based pay, researchers have found both pros and cons for the incentive program.  Beth Lewis from About.com published the following list of pros and cons of merit pay for teachers:

PROS:

·         Americans value hard work and results, and our capitalist system hinges upon rewarding such results.  Most professions offer bonuses and salary increases to exemplary employees, why should teaching be any different?

·         Incentivized teachers will work harder and produce better results.  What motivation do teachers currently have to go above and beyond the job’s basic requirements?

·         Merit Pay programs will help recruit and retain the nation’s brightest minds.  Particularly intelligent and effective teachers might consider leaving the profession if they felt that their extraordinary efforts were being recognized in their paychecks.

·         Teachers are already underpaid.  Merit Pay would help address this injustice.  How better to reflect the esteemed way we feel about educators than through paying them more?

·         We are in the middle of a teaching shortage.  Merit pay would inspire potential teachers to give the profession more consideration as a viable career choice, rather than a personal sacrifice for the higher good.

·         With American schools in crisis, shouldn’t we be open to trying almost anything new in the hopes of making a change?

CONS:

·         Virtually everyone agrees that designing and monitoring a Merit Pay program would be a bureaucratic nightmare of almost epic proportions.

·          Good will and cooperation between teachers will be compromised.  Teachers once worked as a team and shared solutions, Merit Pay can make teachers adopt a more “I’m out for myself only” attitude.

·         Success is difficult, if not impossible, to define and measure.  The various unleveled playing fields in the American education system inherently set up a wide variety of standards and expectations.

·         Opponents to Merit Pay argue that a better solution to the current education crisis is to pay all teachers more.  Why not pay teachers what they are already worth?

·         High-stakes Merit Pay systems would inevitably encourage dishonesty and corruption.  Messy morality issues serve only to distract from the needs of our students who simply need our energies and attentions (Lewis).

The future implications Merit Pay can best be described in another quote from Diane Ravitch, “It is possible to have an educational system that miseducates students while raising their test scores” (2009).  I believe Merit Pay will destroy the gains we have made in education with PLCs because teachers will not want to collaborate with one another because it may interfere with their bonuses.  I believe Merit Pay will re-direct the main focus of education to only tested areas.  It may encourage teachers to eliminate course offerings that do not meet the requirements for the bonus pay.  Teachers may also not put forth the amount of effort in planning and teaching in the courses that are not tested and will not bring them any extra money.  Our students are able to graduate from high school as a fairly well-rounded individual because of all the elective courses we offer.  Many of these electives do not have any state standardized test in their curriculum.  I believe Merit Pay would deem these courses insignificant and ruin our students’ opportunities to learn about all aspects of the world.  As a teacher in a tested area, I would thoroughly enjoy getting a bonus when my Algebra 1 test scores are received; however, I would not want to add another pound of pressure to myself or my students in order to receive that money.  I already feel like I push and shove the Algebra 1 test requirements and consequences to the point that I scare my students more than motivate them and I believe Merit Pay will only make this pressure multiply. 

References



Goldstein, D. (2010). What you need to know about merit pay for teachers (and why). The Washington Post, Retrieved from http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/11/what_you_need_to_know_about_me.html

Lewis, B. (n.d.). Pros and cons of merit pay for teachers. About.com. Retrieved from http://k6educators.about.com/od/assessmentandtesting/a/meritypay.htm

Malanga, S. (2001). Why merit pay will improve teaching. City Journal, Retrieved from http://www.city-journal.org/html/11_3_why_merit_pay.html

Ravitch, D. (2009). What's wrong with merit pay?. Hoover Digest, Retrieved from www.hoover.org/publications/hoover-digest/article/5459

Sorrentino, J. (n.d.). What's the future of merit pay for teachers?. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Whats_the_Future_Merit_Pay/