Teacher Merit Pay Only Effective If Overall Increase
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I have taught computers in public schools, so I can empathize with teacher concerns about merit pay. They are concerned it is just another ploy to avoid paying teachers any more, and it holds the potential to pay them even less.
I’ve also worked in corporate environments with bonus structures, so I can clearly see how competitive environments motivate professionals to do better than they’ve done before.
Education is a closed-off world that clings to the past in many ways, and it is ironic since they are supposed to be teaching to the future.
One old-fashioned habit they cling to is heavy reliance on referrals. The corporate world is moving away from referrals, both because they are so easily manufactured without communicating real abilities and because many companies are refusing to give any more referrals for fear of litigation. However, every teaching job has referral requirements, and every past principal will be contacted for a personal referral. Perhaps litigation over bad referrals is rare in education because lost positions would not have paid much anyways?
Another old fashioned habit is education’s pay raise system that is tied solely to years of experience or extra classes/degrees earned. Just like in the corporate world, education has great, average, and bad teachers. Unlike in the education world, corporations reward and advance great workers, hold average workers to their levels until something changes, and get rid of bad workers fairly quickly.
Without merit pay or a bonus structure, the only motivation teachers have to do better is their own professional work ethic, which should be a given in all workers anyways but unfortunately is not. America has historically thrived on competitive spirit, and it has helped us lead the world.
Our educational pay system actually reflects a more communist philosophy than capitalist. I’m surprised it survived through decades of the ‘Red Scare’ and the iron curtain.
On the other hand, the biggest problems with merit pay schemes is they fail to account for developmentally disabled students, different subjects, and varying budgets afforded to classes. I have heard many calls for merit pay, but I have yet to hear any fair and objective criteria for determining how it is earned. Yet again there is a difference between the education and corporate world. Corporate leadership clearly defines bonus structures with fair and objective criteria. I hope the Bonneville school district board pays close attention to this crucial detail.
Finally, merit pay will only work if salaries are held to at least the same levels and teachers have the potential to earn signficantly more. Otherwise, merit pay will be exposed as another scheme to avoid paying teachers their due worth, and more great teachers will abandon teaching for competitive corporate environments.
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Comments
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0 Basing teacher pay on student performance leads to shenanigans that were famous under the Texas education system while a certain current president was governor there and allegedly “reformed” the Texas system. Students who were doing poorly were shuffled around and encouraged to drop out so that they would not be counted when auditing a the grades of students in that school. Naturally those students, who were in most need of help, didn’t get that help because the school district was too busy trying to inflate their statistics.
Also a utterly naive and simplistic idea such as student grades = student pay will naturally lead to easier tests given and inflation of grades. The naive answer to that then is to base it off of standardized test scores. That leads to teaching to the tests, which is something that happens now thanks to the no child left behind act, instead of teaching children real knowledge. What good is it to teach a child a mathematical formula or priniciple if they can’t apply it to a real world situation. Thats what you get when teach students to pass standardized tests.
Teaching and teachers pay needs real world ideas and solutions instead of right wing rhetoric which is was espoused nearly verbatim in the above post. I don’t have any easy solutions myself that could be explained in short detail but I can recognize hollow and empty ones, especially regurgiated talk radio ones, when I see them.
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0 0 Taxpayer - your comment about looking at the cars in the teacher parking lot is a joke. You have no clue what the teacher’s spouse does for a living, or if they are simply living beyond their means. My husband used to teach school and I was a stay-at-home mom, and I can promise you that there was no way we could have afforded a nice car on his salary alone. Most teachers don’t survivie on their teaching salaries alone. They either rely on their spouse to supplement their income, or they work second jobs themselves. In addition, the funding for schools is so low, that a lot teachers are forced to use their own money to furnish their classrooms with essentials.
And the health insurance they do get is not that great, and not very affordable to have their families added.
And as this article points out, merit based paying does not take into consideration many variables, including teachers who work with developmentally disabled students.
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0 0 Some examples of different teachers to further illustrate why pay based on merit would be so subjective and scary since its so hard to define merit.
1. Teacher A - is a great classroom teacher. Gets many students grades up and many students learn a lot from this teacher but doesn’t have a lot of patience for struggling students. As such several students drop out.
2. Teacher B- not so great in the classroom but is a great mentor and friend to the students. Especially good at helping the borderline students who might drop out without intervention. While this teachers students tend to get lower grades than teacher A, this teacher inspires several students to stay in school who would have dropped out under Teacher A.
3. Teacher C - Average in the classroom but is a great counselor to the students (and your very naive if you don’t think teachers serve a counseling / mentor role). Several students go to teacher for advice and because of teacher C several stay off drugs and a girl who might have gotten pregnant does not.
4. Teacher D - a super disciplinarian. Brooks no insolence. The kids hate him and the struggling ones drop out. But the ones who tough him out get great grades. The rest he could care less about.
Which of these four teachers is a GOOD teacher? Which deserves a raise. In the grades=pay world that taxpayer promotes only teachers A&D get the raises. Yet I would argue that teachers B and C probably were more valuable because of hard to quantify things they did.
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0 0 I’m trying to understand what you wrote about teachers in your post of July 23rd, 2006 at 9:37 am.
As I read your words, you don’t have a whole of confidence in teachers’ ethics and character. You say that teachers will sacrafice the education of their students just so they can get more money.
If that truly is the caliber of our teachers, then why would any parent with a lick sense entrust their child’s future to them in the first place. And forget about paying them! Any teacher that would participate in that kind of fraudulent behavior deserves an extended sleep-over with Kim Mason.
I think the merit pay system could work well if set up correctly. It is silly to assume that the merit pay would hinge on a single attribute like the number of students earning A’s.
The merit system would, in all likelihood, be based on a fairly broad array of desirable attributes with each attribute being scored individually. The merit pay would be granted or denied based on the aggregate score of all measured attributes. Under this type of merit determining system, it would be very probable that the B and C teachers you describe in your later post would be the ones earning their merit pay.
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0 0 Like any profession, there are good teachers (10%), bad teachers (10%), average teachers (80%), and dedicated teachers (may come from any of the three forementioned groups). Most teachers teach what they are asked to teach. If that means teaching the test so the school will get a good rating, then they will teach the test. If it means teaching the requirements for merit raises, then guess what! They will teach the requirements. They are really no different from any other professional, it’s just that they work in an antiquated system.
Also, if you take a superficial look at teacher salaries, they are not well paid. However, if you take a closer look at the details, you will find that there are not many other professions that pay as well. Most people are contracted to work 250 to 260 days a week, 8 or more hours a day. Teachers are contracted to work 180 days a year. In addition, with planning periods, etc., they only average 6 hours a day. If you figure the hourly rate that teachers are paid, they don’t do too badly! Bear in mind that there are some teachers that do work a lot more hours than they are contracted for, but they are not in the majority.
That said, I think that many of us would not last very long in a teaching environment because of the aptitude and patience one has to have when dealing with children on a daily basis. So, whether or not teachers are well paid depends on your outlook and how highly you value the services they perform.
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0 0 Right right. Only “some” teachers work 6 hours a day? Give me a break and come back to reality. Most teachers work the school day plus time after the students leave and time at home for grading homework, tests, lesson preparation, etc…And no, I am not a teacher and not in the education field, I just live in what I call, “the real world.”
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0 0 Furthermore, in the real world of teaching most teachers are essentially required to devote many hours each week to school functions on their own time. They have to be coaches, group leaders, refs, etc. They don’t get paid for this and technically I’m sure they could refuse. But just as surely if they refuse they are going to be encouraged to leave if not fired for some other reason.
And many teachers DO NOT get summers off. Just because school seems to be out it doesn’t mean that all the students have stopped coming. And many school groups continue practicting or meeting during the summer requiring the teacher that was drafted into running it to also be present.
FYI, I’m not a teacher nor am I married or related to one. I’m just realistic and sympathetic to their REAL job.
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0 0 I don’t know where you get your figures that even some teachers work only 6 hours a day. I personally know several teachers (in addition to my husband being a former teacher) and they all work way more than that. The prep time they are allowed during school hours is not nearly enough for all the lesson planning and grading that they need to do, in addition to any extra responsibilities they may have such as yearbook, coaching, etc.
Most teachers arrive to school early and have to stay late, and then still put in time at home trying to complete everything. So I can assure you, there is way more than 6 hours a day put in.
Besides the fact that most teachers end up using some of their own money to supply their classroom. Would you be willing to use your own money to supply your office at work and not get reimbursed? Probably not.
If teachers were paid even close to what they are worth, maybe more people would enter the teaching field and it would be easier to weed out the bad teachers since there would be more of a selection. People who teach are not in it for the money, if they were they would be doing something else.
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0 0 My mom is a teacher and she wishes this would happen. She has coworkers that sit on the internet all day leavfing her to do all the work, and she hates it. Every year, about this time, she dreads going back, not sure if she can last another year.
Some teachers say they would refuse to take Special Ed Students. Well there would ahve to be some adjustments.
They could be ‘graded’ on the following:
Class Grades
Class Attendance
Drop Out Rate
Any Complaints made to the principal by a student or a teacher (they have to be real though)
And the student and parent will fill out a criteria at the end of the year rating the teacher (just like in college classes)
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0 0 I still question though how you fairly grade the teachers on the intangible things like drop out rates, attendance, keeping kids off drugs, etc.
Because it will very obvious to those familiar with the school which teachers are good mentors and counselors but how do you give only one teacher credit and not the school system. Numerous people / programs are all going to try and take credit for a drop in the drop out rate and teen pregnancies. Look at any company, government, business - when something goes right everyone grabs for the credit while the ones who really deserve it are often forgotten.
And basing pay on attendance would mean no teacher would want to take the slacker students into their class. There are three classes of students. Those who will do just fine without help from the teachers because they have caring parents and good homelives. Those who are on the border line and will benefit greatly from caring teachers. And those who are lost causes. Its sad but probably realistic to admit that some kids due to their home lives are too far gone to help. Back to the point, these lost cause kids are a large part of the ones who skip class, drop out, and cause other mayhem. If a teacher was unfortunate enough to be assigned to a class with a high proportion of them is it fair to punish the teacher when they inevitably drop out?
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0 0 If the teachers were actually trying harder to be good teachers, then the drop out rate WOULD lower. Do you know how frustrated kids get when they don’t understand the curriculum? What about the poor 2nd grader who’s teacher refuses to teach them to read and so they’ll be behind in school forever? Is that fair?!
The fact is simple: Most teachers are getting lazy! Especially the older ones. They’re just waiting to retire, just sitting in a room a few more years to get a few more bucks. They’re ALWAYS complaining about raises, so don’t say it isn’t for themoney, because there are arguments going on every year about raises.
If they want a raise sooo bad, they should earn it like the rest of the world!! (THen again, I also think that tenyear (sp?) should be taken out. If they want to keep their job, they should earn that too. I’ve heard of teachers abusing chlidren in class and still not being able to get fired without years of law suits)
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0 0 Well, you can base your opinion on knowing several teachers and I will base my opinion on working and interacting with several hundred teachers.
As far as all the extra hours as coachs, refs, group leaders, etc, they are not required to take those positions, they actively seek them out. Also, they are paid to do those things, they are referred to as stipends.
As far as the “real world”, that was the point. Educators, which includes administrators, teachers, counselors, and all the other professionals and para professionals that work in the educational system, do not work in the real world. Education is in a world of its own and has tenuous links with reality at best.
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0 0 Drop out rates are not always tied to teachers (individual or as a group), especially in Idaho.
One of my best friends had to quit in February of our senior year when a tragic accident made him the only breadwinning man of the house. He had no choice.
Things happen outside of schools all the time that cause dropouts, and it’s ludicrous to think teacher’s could be held accountable for them.
Nobody has mentioned parent responsibility in educating their kids. I’ve taken an educational history course, and it’s only become since after world war II that responsibility has been shifting to expect schools to do everything.
I personally view public education as extracurricular education only. I am primarily responsible for explaining the world to my kids, developing their study skills, and encouraging their intellectual curiosity.
I would never home school because they would miss out on so many good aspects of public education that I couldn’t possible provide. I would also never rely on public education only, because it does not do the most complete job.
What has become of parent responsibility? Are parents going to be dinged somehow if their kids are given every opportunity to learn but are too lazy?
Nobody has mentioned generational differences in our current times. Today’s kids feel they need to be entertained in all aspects, and our media rich world has shortened attention spans to ringtones. Do kids today have the stones to dive into deep research anymore?
Nobody has mentioned personal responsibility in education. If you want to learn something, in our day and age there is nothing to stop you from learning it on your own with online research and your local library’s interlibrary loan department.
Are students going to be dinged somehow if they are given every opportunity to learn and they fail to take advantage?
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0 0 Sure parents do have a MAJOR part in helping kids out. I doubt I would have the GPA that I have now if my mother hadn’t read to me when I was young and pushed me to do good. That’s not the point for me though.
Its ok that I’m considered “smart” BUt I can’t learn something I don’t know anything about on my own!! I am STRUGGLING to keep this GPA up because some teachers just don’t care. On one test, she explained the whole chapter wrong, so everone got a C or worse. I spent HOURS doing extra credit, extra studying, I even went to multiple different math teachers to have them explain the concept as well, just to get my grade up to where I wanted it, and still failed. The only reason I got lucky is because I studied my butt off for the final and got the highest grade, and she, for some odd reason, made that a 100%.
From a teenager’s point of veiw:
Many teachers are doing GREAT already. And do you know what that means? They’re going to get the raises they deserve.
But then there are the teachers that everyone is told to ’switch out’ from, or ’stay away from’ or some kids aren’t warned about and so their GPA fails because of that. THOSE are the teachers that this is REALLY being made for.
Sure, parental teaching matters. But it won’t get me into a good college with a full ride scholarship will it?
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0 0 Maybe it would be more wise to rely on updating and improving the public education system as a whole before talking about merit-pay increases for teachers. I don’t think it’s any secret that American public schools are in serious trouble when it comes to funding and material. I find it hilarious that there is even a debate about whether to teach evolution or “intelligent design”.
So let’s work on what out teachers are teaching before we decide what they should be paid.
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0 0 1/2 of them don’t follow the curriculum anyways.
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0 0 I agree that American schools as a whole are in serious trouble. There are of course good schools and good teachers out there. But there are also major problems as well.
If parents don’t take an active role in their childs education, they will most definitely fail. I have friends that teach in elementary schools and they have commented that there are a surprising amount of kids whose parents don’t even check their backpacks each day. They may have homework or other papers, including some that may require a parent signature on them, and they don’t even get looked at each night. As a parent, I can’t imagine not even being interested in what my child is doing at school each day. It doesn’t even take that much time just to look to see what papers they brought home that day. By showing an interest in their education, it might even give the child a little boost of confidence, just by showing them what they do matters.
The school system is in obvious need for reform in a lot of areas. Funding being an obvious place to start. If school systems had more funding they would be able to make a number of the much needed changes. It is pretty sad that a lot of teachers have to use their own money to furnish necessary items for their classrooms.
I agree that the tenure system should be altered as well. It shouldn’t be so difficult to get rid of teachers who are not doing their job effectively. In the corporate world it is pretty easy to eliminate employees who are not doing well, it should be the same in education.
But teachers should also be paid what they are worth. Considering a lot of what they have to do and put up with, they are not paid nearly enough. They are educating our children. Without a good foundation in education, few are likely to continue on to college and higher education. In addition to the fact few are ready for college as it is. A lot of students have a rude awakening when they enter college and see what is expected of them. I have had English professors comment on the lack of writing skills in freshman when they first enter college.
Maybe if teachers were paid better and the school systems had more funding available, our education system could make the changes needed.
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0 0 BoredGirl, regarding your comment about mostly good teachers and a few bad ones, unfortunately that happens everywhere. I’ve seen the same trend in military, government, public schools, colleges, police departments, and big corporations. It also happens in every country around the world. It’s probably just a trend of humanity that there will always be some dead weight.
It would be nice to design an instructor career that weeded out more bad teachers, though.
Regarding:
“Its ok that I’m considered “smart†BUt I can’t learn something I don’t know anything about on my own!!”
Oh but you can!
When I said personal learning responsibility, maybe that is what students need to learn more than anything else, because having a great sense of it will enable you to learn anything else.
Think about it:
If you wanted to learn Spanish, how would you do it? Wait to take the class in HS? You know you can go to Barnes & Noble and get a book or CD’s that teach it to you faster, right?
Or even better, you know you could Google the term ‘learn Spanish’ or ‘learn Spanish online’ or ‘online Spanish lessons’ and you would quickly find the best free resources.
Of course the best way to learn something the fastest is to immerse yourself as deeply as possible, ESPECIALLY if you are extremely uncomfortable.
You could learn Spanish in 2 weeks just by living with a local Mexican immigrant family, couldn’t you?
Can you imagine public school requiring students to live with a Mexican immigrant family for two weeks? Of course not, and that is where personal learning responsibilty steps in and the individual decides if and how they want to learn things for themselves.
So think of other things that cause you problems academically: math, science, English, whatever.
If you were to take complete personal learning responsibility for that subject(s), what would you do?
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0 0 BTW, please don’t think I’m harping on you, I genuinely excited about the possibilities of individual learning.
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0 0 First I read about Tom Luna’s merit-pay plan (called iStars) losing governor support, then getting scaled back in scope, now it’s been effectively killed:
http://www.localnews8.com/Global/story.asp?S=7948392
The real issue is that merit pay would only be rewarded from the results of a single test. If our life outcomes are not based on a single test, why place such high stakes on a single test for students to graduate or for teachers to get paid?
How could teacher merit pay be more effective? I think a matrix of objective accomplishments should be developed and used to determine merit pay.
It’s unfortunate that Tom Luna’s biggest idea was to reward teachers for giving up their job security for a measly bonus. We need bigger ideas than this, and we are not going to get them from a bureaucrat like Tom Luna.
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0 0 One of my daughters is a stay at home mom, has 6 kids (and hubby’s a Treasury agent so they can afford them) and she homeschools the kids to boot.
They are all very intelligent and well beyond their age/grade level in their skills.
The one thing I was worried about was the socialization…but between church and the home school coordinated field trips with other homeschoolers in the Phoenix area, my grandkids are doing well in that area, too.
There are so many people who are so passionate both for the teachers (and against the teachers’ union) in this state, that I marvel that anything gets past the gridlock.
My daughters attended school in district 91. I have stepchildren in district 91 currently and through the years I have seen both good and bad teachers. I’m guessing that they have as many fools as any other profession (or website commentators) and one test would not be an effective tool to determine their value.
Joe mentioned a matrix of objective accomplishments. Does one not exist? It seems so odd that after all these years of a public school system that we don’t have something in place to protect/reward our teachers.
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0 0 I would suggest matrix criteria like the ISAT, annual writing test, percentage of students who take ACT/SAT and their average scores, percentage of graduates who attend college within 3 years of graduating, etc.
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0 0 I wanted to put my 2cents in about “home-schooling”. My parents home schooled one of my brothers, and while he did pretty well acedemically, his social skills were severely compromised. (and I mean SEVERELY) While he was very active in his church group and family functions growing up, he never built up the social skills that most people do being around their peers while attending a regular school. While he graduated at 17, he had the social mentality of a 6th grader at best. He didn’t know how to act around people his age, let alone girls his age. It was very disturbing to watch him out in public at times and around people his age. While this was many years ago, he’s now 35 and is married with a couple of children. He’s been married twice. Once to the first girl that gave him any attention whatsoever. (that turned out to be a disaster) and his current wife is much worse. She’s severely overweight, she doesn’t work, she doesn’t cook or clean and she doesn’t spend any time with their child who is now 4. Their child sits in her room with no stimulation whatsoever. Her mother sits on the computer all day. She doesn’t read to her or spend any quality time with her. This child is still in diapers at 4 y/o and can not speak in full sentences yet. It’s very sad and it’s quite upsetting for me and my family. My parents realize now they should have incorporated more extracurricular activities for him to enable him to be around his peers. (at the very least)
So while I think that home-schooling (if done correctly) can be a good thing in “certain situations”, I for one will NEVER home school my children. No matter what! Kids growing up need that social interaction with other kids their age to be able to grow socially, mentally and emotionally.
While the fact that he has a loser for a wife has nothing to do with home schooling, i do think if he had more self confidence he would have never married this girl to begin with. (let alone his first wife) So he’s left with being the sole provider for his family (which thankfully he does make a good living), but must also get his child ready in the mornings, feed & bathe her, clean the house and cook dinner when he gets home from work AND try to give his daughter the only emotional and mental stimulation she gets within their household.
I must add that they never intended to have children in his second marriage. He had a son from his previous marriage who turned out great…..but after that he had a vasectomy and his second wife was supposedly sterile. Regardless, they ended up getting pregnant. While that doesn’t excuse the fact that she’s an inadequate mother and wife and he is socially inept, I do believe home schooling made him socially crippled.
While this is probably a worse case scenario, I would strongly advise against anybody considering home-schooling their children. I have a friend that had an eerily similar experience with a member of his family that was also home-schooled. Children need the social interation they get with going to school with other children their age.
While Nemisis had a good experience to share with us regarding home schooling, I think that is definately the exception to the rule.
IMHO
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0 0 Oh, you know, Slim Pickens, despite the fact that it’s successful so far, I’d still prefer that she not do it. I don’t really know that it will continue to be successful, as my grandchildren are not fully grown.
I’m sorry your brother had that bad situation. I worry for my grandchildren’s future, and I truly hope something similar doesn’t happen to them.
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0 0 As his brother, it was very sad and frustrating to see this happen to him. I do think it can be a positive thing as long as, like you noted, keep them very active in outside programs such as field trips with other homeschoolers, etc. There are many reasons that people homeschool their children. However doing it to keep them away from the influence of others, is not a good reason in my opinion. Kids need this daily dose of interaction with other kids. They need to learn how to say no to peer pressure, stand up to a bully, and more importantly work and communicate with their peers. None of which they’ll experience in a home schooled environment.
All i can say is that if you know some home schooled children, take every chance you can to get them out in the world to interact with other kids. Whether it’s afternoons at a public playground, or it’s a bowling league, music lessons or community sports team. Every little bit you can get them out there to interact with other kids their age, will be a huge help. My brother never got that and it showed once he got older.
I only told this story because it made me sad for the longest time and I really resented my parents for doing that to him. (although I’m sure it wasn’t intentional) While he’s perfectly fine now, much of the hardships in his life are a direct result of having no regular interaction with kids his own age while he was growing up. Once a week with his bible study group just didn’t cut it.
Thanks for your concern Nemisis and best of luck to your Grandchildren. I’d like to think my brothers situation was rather extreme and perhaps I’m a little biased because of the outcome. But being a Grandparent, you still have a lot of influence over your children and their children. A little suggestion here or there is all it would take to make all the difference in the world to your Grandkids social development.
Best wishes!
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0 0 District 93 recognized several teachers last night with cash awards. There were mixed reactions. Do you think this is an appropriate way to recognize outstanding teachers?
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0 0 I think this is great. I once overheard a teacher that was complaning about only getting a 3% pay increase one year. I remember many times over the last few years that our company didn’t give any pay increases because things were tight. They should be greatful for any increase at all.
I believe that rewarding teachers with money like this is great. It’s a great way to show they are appreciated as well as reward them for their efforts.
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0 0 I think it’s great too! Why not? Many companies reward hard work and those that go “above and beyond” with bonuses and pay raises, why not teachers.
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0 0 I agree with the pay via bonus. and a word of wisdom to those{educators} who are complaining you need to stop ,if you want it to continue and double next year.
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Public school teachers are compensated very well; ie: great pay for working 3/4 of the year- summer off, long holiday periods off, nice pension, health insurance, job for life after short period to get tenured, M-F weekends off. Don’t let the ploy of underpaid and overworked apply to the public school teachers. That’s what they and the teachers’ unions want you to believe. It’s simply not so! Why not simply pay teachers based on performance. Students do well equals more pay. Students do badly equals no pay raise or eventual dismissal. Very much like the private sector. Next time you drive by a public school teacher parking or public school administration parking lot - notice the cars. They are are new. None of these people are badly paid.