Performance Pay 4 Teachers?

Question

On a "It doesn't work" sort of veiw. How come? What are the bad things about performance pay for teachers?

Answer 1

So much of teaching is collaborative that the fear is that Performance Pay would discourage that.

And teachers have no control over their students. We all know that sometimes you get the "good class" and sometimes we don't. The fear is that some teachers will look like their Performance is Superior when really it is luck-of-the-draw. I've had classes before that I could sit with my feet up all year and they would STILL make me look good, and I've had classes where I could stand on my head, work hours and hours and hours on GREAT lessons, and STILL it would look like I was not performing well if the basis of judgement was performance on state tests.

I would be fine with being judged on how much growth a class has made as long as where the were at the beginning of the year was the baseline - not the standard for that grade. That way every teacher has a fair shot and would be accountable for making sure their class "grew" and not just met state standards.

And it should not be competitive. If every teacher moves their class up then every teacher should get the bonus.

Answer 2

Each day I wake up to teach the last thing I think about is how much money it's going to give me... and that's probably why I'm a teacher. I think what is going to be best for the students (and how can I get coffee before class starts). What is best is not always reflected in a standardized test. And sure, it would be good to get rid of every bad teacher- but most of those bad teachers will leave themselves in the first 2 to 5 years of teaching. All performance pay will do is compromise the integrity of what teachers are teaching and why they are teaching it.

Answer 3

I would concur with most of the negative response to performance pay if the performance of "students" is the only criteria for evaluating a teacher for advances in pay

However, Merit Pay for teachers, which would include some evaluation of student performance, would be a better way to consider a teachers pay raise. But, visible dedication to the students, the district, and the profession would also have to be evaluated. Creativity, enthusiasm, and novelty are other traits to be considered. Certainly absenteeism, by way of personal leave or sick leave, promptness in appearing for work and in meeting scheduled assignments, willingness to "adapt" to difficult situations, classroom discipline and atmosphere are yet other measures for consideration. Educational advancement (based on meritorious and worthwhile effort, not attendance in weekend sit-in classes) would be an important factor to consider. Finally, student and parent evaluation of the teacher would be advisable as well (students and parents are not ALL teacher haters).

There may be more criteria one could add the above but I'll leave that to the Asker and the Readers.

Of course, the teachers union would allow none of the above.

Thanks for allowing me to have an input.

And, as to the response from James F: merit pay takes much more into consideration than just the results of student test performance. Your argument doesn't hold water.

Answer 4

I agree with the first answer. We aren't given the opportunity to pick our students so its basically a lucky draw on who our students are. If we get a good bunch, then they are more likely to to good on assesments even if I wasn't a good teacher. Also, you have to take into effect the demographics in where a school is. I teach at a low income/poverty school, so the scores are mostly lower than all the other schools. Then this usually means we deal more with discipline sometimes. Also, what about the special education students, the LEP students, the ELL students (which is becoming a hotter topic and will be inevitable) or students who come in mid year because they are migrant students, so on and so forth. We can only do so much for these particular students who have very diverse needs. Its not fair to be payed based on the perfomance when you have a GT students versus a student with a learning disability. Or a student who has parents who don't have time for their child because they are always working, thus the student dosen't care about school. ITS VERY HARD and DIVERSE in our classrooms today, and being payed based on performance is simply UNFAIR to teachers, especially the newer teachers. SO NO, I don't think it should even be considered!

Answer 5

IF my district had merit pay, I would ask for the worst students. Why? Because of the tendency of test-takers on standardized tests to gravitate toward the mean. I could take the worst students, teach them a little of what's on the test and play poker with them the rest of the time, and chances are, they will improve a little on the test. They probably wouldn't do any worse if I prepped them for the test. The teacher who takes on the best students, however, could teach till she's blue in the face, use all the right strategies, and the class will probably perform as well as before, or they will gravitate toward the mean by dropping in score a little. Now, who's going to get the pay raise? Me. Why? My students "improved." The other teacher? She will not get a raise. Do you see how merit pay is unfair?

Answer 6

If my wife is going to be paid for her performance, then she could be able to choose her students, and send out of the classrroom the students who are lazy, disrespectful or their families are not involved or don't care about their children's education.... not a pretty picture....
Hey, manager can choose their teams and get their better workers, do you imagine if the parents who care could choose their children's classmates....
It is Ok, performance pay, but not make the teacher put up with a lot of bs in order just to teach the interested students.

Answer 7

I see its benefits and its problems. One major problem is when a teacher gets stuck with low-performing students who are working to the best of their ability (when the best of their ability is still not good enough). Is that teacher going to be paid fairly?

Answer 8

Personally, I feel that any public employee should be paid based on performance. Why?

Because the private sector works that way. Even private education works in a sense that if a student does poorly in a classroom the parent can opt to take their child out [and their money]. Because of this, the school and its staff have incentive to ensure the success of that child (to an extent).

Public services, including public education, are horribly mismanaged and inefficient. A performance pay system is a step in the right direction.

Answer 9

Kids move around too much. If I have a kid in my classroom who has been to 6 schools in 5 years then there is no way his test scores in my class would be reflective of my teaching. It would reflect the teaching (and lack of stability) in his education. Also, testing isn't the most effective way to measure student progress. If it is based only on testing, what do you do with those kids' scores that suck at test-taking?

Answer 10

No. We should do our job to the best of our abilities anyway.
Don't for get the other person in the classroom who helps us get these awards. The TA. I think the TA deserves to get a decent salary for the work s/he does.

I won't say no to a pay rise though.