For years, educators and government officials have argued what the most effective system of payment is for teachers in the United States. Government officials state that a “merit pay” system, where teacher pay would reflect the students’ test scores, would be the most effective and would increase teacher performance. Teachers, on the other hand, see the merit pay system as a threat to their salaries and fear that they cannot control student performance. The debate will continue for years to come. However, many people will agree that set teacher salary systems are more conducive to teaching students and maintaining a stable learning environment for all.
Merit pay, also known as performance pay, systems have existed since 1862. Beginning in England, these systems focused on how many students attended classes and the number of students passing (Harris). The main goal of this particular system, in the Progressive Era, was to attract the finest teachers to certain areas and to make sure that children in the schools were learning a sufficient education. As time progressed, the same basic goals of the program have remained relatively the same. However, the popularity of the pay-for-performance program has wavered since its origination. For example, when the Russians launched Sputnik, there was a drastic push for academic excellence across the United States (Harris). In turn, many merit pay systems were implemented in hopes of giving teachers plenty of incentives and enticing them to perform to the best of their abilities. Most schools that applied the pay-for-performance plan within their school systems had dropped the program in the next ten years. Many other countries, like Mexico and Bolivia, have also experimented with s...
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Even way back then, the whole thinking of giving more money to schools that score higher than schools that score lower seemed like a really dumb way to do things. Now, students have to do testing every time they turn around. The testing not only affects the money the government gives to the school district. It affects the individual students much more. Students that test low are not able to graduate even though they have completed and passed all of their classes.
"The Single Salary Schedule for Teachers in K-12 Public Schools." Department of Economics (2002): 1-18. Print.
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
Each country takes a different approach to education which places them at distinctive ranks, such as how the teaching in another country can be more vigorous and strict than in the US. Out of fifty countries in the world, America is ranked number seventeen for education; while countries such as Finland is at the top of the list (“Best Education In The World”). Behind the curtain of education are the students, considering that the educational system depends on these bright minds. The students’ grades not only reflect the educational rank, but also the future of the country as a whole because these students are the next generation of entrepreneurs and doctors. In order for the rank of education to excel in the US, the Cash for Grades Program must be used in schools to aid low-income students, to motivate, and allow focus on school for all of the students.
Subjects talked about incorporate the advantages, costs and financial return of school training, examination for compensation of school graduates, and the ramifications of rising educational cost and falling wages for the estimation of school instruction (Abel, Jaison R., and Richard Deitz. "Do The Benefits Of College Still Outweigh The Costs?." Current Issues In Economics & Finance 20.3 (2014): 1-12. Academic Search Alumni Edition. Web. 1 May
The costs and benefits of an excellent education for all of America’s children. Teachers College, Columbia University Levin, Henry, Clive Belfield, Peter Muennig, and Cecilia Rouse. 2007.
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...
Some people believe merit pay creates competition and favoritism. They seem to think school systems will pay some teachers more than others and create a “battle” for money. In Merit Pay: Good for Teachers? By Gary Drevitch, one interviewee states, “I know it’s worked in some places, but I shudder at the idea of teachers being in competition with each other.” None of these problems will occur if school districts implement a successful, unbiased system. Another issue society presents when it comes to merit pay comprises of differentiating a “good” teacher from a “bad” teacher. School districts can easily evaluate a teacher’s ability to educate students by the work teachers put into helping students. Student’s reactions to a teacher’s class can also help evaluate teachers. More often than not, students will love a class where the teacher clearly demonstrates lessons, explain procedures, and adds elements of fun. On the other hand, students typically dislike classes where the teacher only comes in for a paycheck. This attitude is displayed by their lackadaisical teaching style. Other people argue that money should not be the reason why people go into teaching. Richard Barbieri, author of Merit Pay? argues that money is not an external motivator, but the substance of a teacher’s motivation. Financial incentives will cause employees to work harder
Hays, Scott. "Pros & Cons of Pay for Performance." Workforce 78, Number 2 (February 1997): 68-72
If students were paid for grades, there would be less money for field trips and other school activities. Many of these students aren’t on track to graduate from high school, much less go on to college. New York City’s Spark program (now in its second year), awards fourth- and seventh-graders cash for high achievement on a series of math and reading tests throughout the year. A fourth-grader can earn up to $250 a year, while a seventh-grader can earn up to $500 (Greatschools Staff,
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. One example of this is, if a student already knows how to write a narrative but the standardized curriculum requires them to teach how to write a narrative it would be a big waste of time having to cover it that deeply if the students had already learned it. If those people would not have stepped in then the teacher could have moved faster and taught the students something they actually needed to be taught, such as how to write a argumentative essay (Paying teachers for student test scores damages schools and undermines learning) (Does Merit Pay For Teachers Have Merit? Pros And Cons Of New Models For Teacher Compensation). In the 2011-2012 school year (the year when they tried implementing performance/merit pay in idaho and many other states) the sat scores actually went down very slightly, or did not change at all --the score did not go up like the it was supposed to (Idaho ED
In any organization, sometimes, monetary schemes doesnot get people involve to pursue work in a certain way, rather it demoralize and threatens the self-esteem of employees. According to Meyer (1975), “the basis for most of the problems with merit pay plans is that most people think their own performance is above average”. The amount may ...
So even if teachers do their best, some of their students cannot get good grades (Solmon et al., 21-22). Yes, it is true. There will always be a small number of students who are hard to handle. However, merit pay is a salary paid based on employee performance, for a teacher, which is means based on their students’ score. In other words, the teacher whose students get better grades, are the people who can earn a higher salary. So what is the definition of better? If we compare all of the teachers in a country or in a state and choose who is better, this would not be fair. Nevertheless, if we just compare the teachers who are in the same schools and teaching students who are at the same level, this would be more equitable because they are teaching students who have similar abilities. Every class has good students and bad students, we can contradistinguish the average mark of a class for same exams like SAT or AP. Schools can give higher payments to the best teacher at every level. Merit pay is impartial as long as we use it in right
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. .
Education has played an important role in people’s lives and receiving the best education is a right to all humans, but now in days we can see that our education system is in deep distress. This is made evident by the low rate of graduates; that’s why our education system needs to be improved. Many people think that our government is responsible for our bad education system, However, teachers are the real issue even though many teachers are saying they 're doing their best, they’re not. How do we improve our education system? For a start, we need to provide better teaching programs for teachers to improve their skills and make them earn their tenure instead of just giving it to them.