Should Merit-Based Pay be used in K-12 education systems?
In 2009 the Obama administration launched ‘Race to the Top’, which is a program that awarded grants to incentivize state governments to improve teacher accountability at public schools. (Weisberg, 2009). This was accomplished through the implementation of merit based pay and teacher evaluations. The reform effort began because citizens and scholars have come to realize that teachers are the main component of academic achievement. The reform effort aimed to improve teachers’ quality and effectiveness. This thesis will examine how implementation of merit based pay can enhance student learning and accomplishment, as well as how it contrasts with the current method of fiscal measures in the public education sector.
Merit-Based Pay’s Evaluation System can Improve Teacher Quality
Research has shown that teacher evaluations have failed several times in assessing their instructors properly. In 2009, The New Teacher
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Based on the students’ academic performance from one year to the next one can determine the efficiency of a particular teacher. Studies have shown that the responsibility of education falls primarily on the teacher’s effectiveness. Currently teachers are not being evaluated accurately and there is not much one can do to get rid of underperforming teachers therefore a reform must take place. The false evaluations are the root of the problem and implementing merit based pay plan will allow for better judgment and transparency. State and local governments have successfully implemented the merit-based pay plan and are seeing positive results. The merit based pay system is changing the form in which teachers are compensated and it is resulting in more qualified and, more academically advanced instructors entering the
The oversite committee then evaluates the success of their money allocation and incentivize the success of the public school’s education. “Americans do not appear ready to pay the price.” (Barber, p. 215) Money is the most powerful motivator, and if the success of school districts reaps the benefits of more financial resource, educators will fight to be the best. This new desire to be the best, is possible with the equalization of opportunity from the allocation of funds to the poorer schools. The race to the top would already be won by the larger, richer, and more powerful school districts without those foundational funds. “Because we believe in profits, we are consummate salespersons and efficacious entrepreneurs.” (217) Barber’s essay supports the idea of incentivized results. Not only would districts compete with other schools, but their standards would be raised year after year in consequence to the oversite of the
Figlio, David N. "Teacher Salaries and Teacher Quality." Economic Letters 55.2 (1997): 267-71. Sciencedirect.com. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
If the server does an excellent job in tending to customers by catering to their every need, the customer will leave a higher tip, as opposed to a server who completes the bare minimum. Poor servers will receive a lower tip. The tip represents the server’s skill and ability. Merit pay for teachers follows the same idea. A teacher who caters to every student’s need and completes exemplary work will receive a bonus similar to a server’s tips. The better the job a teacher does, the better bonus he or she will receive. On the other hand, if a teacher completes the bare minimum, mediocre work, he or she will receive a lower bonus or none at all. Susan Moore Johnson explains that school districts should give small incentives, comparable to tips, as small bonuses to teachers. Gary Ritter, a professor of Education Reform and Public Policy, proposes an idealistic way of rewarding these bonuses. School districts will reward core subject teachers up to $10,000 in bonuses per year, noncore subject teachers up to $6,000, and other staff, including teacher associates, up to $1,000 (Ritter). Teachers who transfer to hard-to-staff schools, teach subjects in which there are shortages, such as math, science, special education, and bilingual educaiton, and work longer days should be rewarded with these
Podgursky, Michael. The Single Salary for teachers in K-12 public schools. New York: Prentice Hall, 2002.
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.
For many years in United States, equal salary pay for women has been a major issue that women have been fighting for decades. This began back in World War II, when the National Labor Board urged equalize the salary rates for women with the same rates that males were getting of the same professions. (Rowen) Although, traditionally most women do not work to provide for there family and there are not so many independent women during World War II. After World War II more women lost their jobs to veterans returning to the workforce. Women in the workforce after the war have been discriminated ever since. The idea of women as weak and cannot perform there jobs
Prostik, J. (1996). ‘ History of Teacher Pay and Incentive Reforms’, Journal of School Leadership,6, 3,265-89.
Some locations in the United States are trying to improve their education by adding quality teachers. A major reason why there is an achievement gap in education is because there exist a gap in teachers as well. Research has shown that teacher quality counts. Some states are seeking ways to keep quality teachers and ways to attract them. In New York City, the schools will not hire teachers that are not certified. Also, New York and California are adding some sort of incentive in public schools, to attract quality teaching to minority schools. Sometimes school add annual bonus up to $10,000 for qualify teacher to work in public school, with low achieving schools. Also, many state provide some sort of tuition assistance for teacher, but of all of the states only seven target the candidates to commit to the lower achieving schools (Olsen, 2003).
The public high schools began a grading system as a way of telling an individual how they were performing. There was no interest by the public in reporting the school’s progress at teaching. Teachers, in an effort to recognize outstanding performers, looked for a way of rewarding hard-working students for their efforts The grading structure changed from superior and excellent to A’s and B’s. This placed much of the burden of recognizing academic talent on the high schools.
Although some people may argue that performance pay is good, performance/merit pay is bad because it will result in teachers doing much less personalizing of the curriculum, and spending that time doing only what things need to be taught in order to keep their student’s test scores up (so they will get paid more). One of the major cons of performance pay is that teachers would have less time personalising the curriculum, teaching the students what they need to be taught, and teaching other important but non-standardized subjects; then using that time teaching only the things they are required to teach to keep student test scores up so they will get paid more(What Do We Know about Teacher Pay-for-Performance?). This in turn will cause the students to have a harder time learning because instead of the teachers teaching what the students need to be taught and more time teaching what the people who don’t know what the students know think the students should be taught.
There are many ways to compile data on a teacher and determine that person’s performance. Teacher performance can be based upon classroom observation, a teacher’s continuing development and education, and students’ standardized testing scores. The controversy centers around using student test scores to determine the performance of a teacher and thus her pay. Scott Andes, a research analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation voices the merits of performance based pay with his article “Getting Serious with Education: Why Can We Measure Students but Not Teachers?” High School English teachers, Jordan Kohanim and Ashley Ulrich vehemently state why there is no merit with performance based pay with their article, “No Merit to Merit Pay Arguments.” In each article both sides debate how performance based or merit pay will affect students, teachers, schools, and com...
Attracting and retaining the most talented employees is essential for long-term organizational success. An important component to attracting and retaining such employees is the design and implementation of an effective compensation and benefit system. Assuming the role of a highly regarded human resource consultant hired to review, analyze, and revise the compensation and benefit system utilized by my city’s largest employer, Holland Enterprises, this paper presents a revised compensation and benefit strategy that suits the firm. This proposal describes how an effective compensation and benefit system could contribute to organizational effectiveness in the firm, the principle components of the revised compensation and benefit system for the
The state’s new evaluation system was in response to administrators who produced, “superficial and capricious teacher evaluation systems that often don't even directly address the quality of instruction, much less measure students' learning” (Toch, 2008). Too often, the “good-ol-boy” attitude would insure mediocre educators would remain employed. Realizing this was often more the rule then the exception, the governor created educational mandates to focus, “on supporting and training effective teachers to drive student achievement” (Marzano Center, 2013). Initially, they expected the school districts and the teachers would have issues and experience growing pains, but in the end the goal was, “to improve teacher performance, year by year, with a corresponding rise in student achievement” (Marzano Center, 2013).
Duke, Daniel L., ed. Incentive Pay and Career Ladders For Today's Teachers. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990. 42-241. Grand Rapids Community College Database . Web. 6 Apr. 2014. .
Public school education system is important and should be taken very seriously. It is the starting foundation to each and every one of our lives. Our educators, lay down the pathway for education.. In today’s world, teachers play a big role in building America. They are the ones who encourage our children to excel into their greatest self. Without teachers, society would face a drastic downfall. There would not be many professions around. Doctors would be unable to save the lives of our friends and families. There would not be any police officers to protect and serve, nor there be a president to lead this country. The public school education system, as a whole, is something that has been over looked for some time. While other professions are progressing in life, the Public Education System, in general, is staying the same. Teaching is not an easy job. The hours are long, the demands are high, and the working conditions are often challenging .Given the conditions, in which, this profession is carried out, a better financial plan is needed to accommodate for the, unbalanced, priority.