why do teachers unions always oppose performance based pay?

Answer 1

While to the general public that has little knowledge and experience in education, performance based pay would sound logical. However, paying teachers on the performance of his or her students would be unfair.

Lets say you base pay on standardized test scores of students. To most, that sounds reasonable. However, there are many variables that make it unfair for teachers. For instance, in my classroom there is a wide variety of students from year to year. One year, I may have a group of very strong academic and high scoring students, resulting in high test scores for my class. The next year, I may have a large group of students with learning disabilities and/or english language learners. Naturally, the test scores of my class will be lower the second year and higher the first. Does that suddenly make me a good teacher one year then a poor one the next? Should I get higher pay the first year and then get penalized the next even though I have no control over the students that enter my classroom? You might say a good teacher will be able to bring the test score up even with a low academic class. However, it takes many years of interventions before english language learners and students with learning disabilities can achieve at a profiecient level.

There are other factors outside the control of a teacher you must also consider. Truancy can be a problem. What if a student misses a amount of school and/or just does not do the work and the parents will not work with the teacher to help get the work done? What about the parents that refuse to allow interventions for their child when their child needs extra academic support? There are kids that come from broken homes, abusive homes, etc. There are schools where veteran teachers get to hand pick their students while the new teachers get the "challenged" students.

While it's true that a good teacher can have a significant impact on the success of his or her students, there are just too many factors that directly affect the academic success of students that a teacher cannot control and should not be held 100% accountable.

Another negative side effect of performance based pay would be the end to teacher collaboration. As a teacher, I share my best teaching practices with any and all teachers I know. I even donate my time to teach student teachers from a nearby university because I want new teachers to gain as much knowledge as possible. However, if I'm being judged, compared, and put up against other teachers to see who is the best performing teacher, I will certainly stop sharing any best practices with other teachers. I would expect the same from other teachers too. I've learned how to be a good teacher not only from direct teaching the my classroom but from the knowledge and experiences from other teachers that I collaborate with on a regular basis.

Answer 2

As a union teacher, I work very hard and often find it frustrating not to be rewarded for my "performance." The danger of that, however, is deciding who is going to assess the "performance" and how it is going to be assessed. Quite frankly, student achievement is not a good indicator. I've taught in two very different school districts. The "blue ribbon" school district where I teach now is an easier place to teach because the students are competitive and self-motivated, and their parents are very involved in the education process. The lower socioeconomic school district I worked in required the teachers to do twice as much work, and the students were consistently below par on standardized tests. There are just too many factors that affect student achievement, which is what some states have used as the tool to determine teacher "performance" in the past.

Answer 3

In sales, pay depends on individual performance. The individual is in control of his performance.

In other business environments, if your people don't work out - terminate.

Bottom line - customer service and positive cash flow is king!


In teaching, how can I be held accountable for student performance? The simple fact is that only a few public elementary, middle, and high school students want to learn. The rest are at school because mom and dad send them... .and of course to socialize.

I've been teaching for 9 years, both at the middle school level and at a college. Believe me, if the students don't want to perform, they won't. It's not about a product in this arena of life, it's about building up positive, socially responsible, lawful contributors of society.

Cheers,
EA

Answer 4

It is the students that do the performing. The teachers are forced to teach in an environment where they are not allowed to discipline the disruptive students and the parents blame the teachers for their undisciplined children not learning. It was not the case 20 years ago.

Answer 5

Because they ...can?
More likely because the performance assessment system in use are considered biaised or inappropriate.
interesting to know what could be defined as a good / performing teacher:
The student success?
The student engagement (unrelated to grades?)
...

Answer 6

Because a) whose to say what consitutes as good perfomace b) bad teachers need jobs too c) if they don't who would play the devils advocate?

Answer 7

simple... they dont want to work as hard but they want to do what they want with a pay larger than what they ought to have.

its basic human nature..

Answer 8

they are the ones whose performance would be tested and it would adversely affect their pay. Duh