Effective Teachers are Inadequately Rewarded in the United States

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Effective teachers are inadequately rewarded in the United States. School districts, such as those in California, are just starting to implement merit pay. According to a study conducted by the National Center of Performance Incentives (NCPI), only about 500 school districts out of the 14,000 districts in the US implement merit pay for teachers. These numbers do not include private schools. Unfortunately, teachers, parents, and students hurt because many schools, private and public, base teacher pay on seniority and degrees rather than achievement and performance. Under such a system, novice teachers, are laid off during budget shortages. Moreover, with the current “single salary schedule” system, teachers are inadequately paid, especially when compared to other professions. Because the single salary schedule creates many issues, a solution needs to be proposed. Merit pay, a system based on performance, solves such issues. With this system, teacher performance outweighs teacher seniority. As a result, quality teachers will be rewarded adequately in terms of money and recognition. Outstanding teachers will no longer face unreasonable layoffs and will finally be paid more than their ineffective peers.

1. Teachers Play a Significant Role in the Education System
Teachers are instructors, tutors, and evaluators. That being said, teachers play a significant role in the education system. They must not only understand the material they are teaching, but instead, they must also be able to teach it to the students. Such a task is difficult and requires skills, especially when the students are uncooperative. Also, teachers do more than lecturing. They often plan their curriculum accordingly so that students get the most out of the lesson...

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"Fact Sheet: The Race to the Top." The White House. The White House, 04 Nov. 2009. Web. 15 May 2014.

"The New Mayor and Teachers." The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 Dec. 2013. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.

Startz, Dick. Profit of Education. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010. Print.

Stewart, Joshua. "Race to the Top Means Merit Pay for Teachers." GPB News. GPB News, 20 Jan. 2011. Web. 15 May 2014.

Strauss, Valerie. "‘I Have Had Enough’ – Veteran Teacher Tells School Board." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 10 Mar. 2013. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.

What Do We Know About Merit Pay? Issue brief no. 20. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 May 2014.

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