Does merit pay work?

Question

Has any teacher worked in a school system where merit pay was effective for more than 3 years? If you worked in teaching job where merit pay was an option did you see a change in the teacher moral after it was implemented? Better or worse?

East Academic - Thank you for your questions. They are all good. It seems like the ones who are pushing for merit pay for teachers are not teaching. It works in private industry, but those employees are dealing with employers who either chose to be there or can be told to leave. Education is not the same. Students may or may not be motivated to learn, no matter how many hours a teacher puts into teaching. I have never seen it work for more than three years. I just want to see if there is a school system out there where it has actually worked. My experience has been that it causes many more problems than it solves. Moral plummets and teachers and students are impacted in a negative way. I'm looking for anyone who can challenge that finding.

Thank you for your input Harold. Do you feel that unmotivated teachers stay in the classroom in public schools in order to get tenure? We can't keep teachers more than 5 years. Is it just the promise of money that motivates them? I must have been in the wrong public schools for the last 30 years. We had some awesome teachers.

Thank you TAT. You share the insight of many teachers.

I'm still looking for someone, anyone, anywhere who has worked in a school system where students have diverse needs and where merit pay has been successful for over 3 years. Anyone????

Answer 1

The biggest problem with merit pay is the playing field is rarely even. I have seen that the best teachers frequently get the hardest students. They are stuck with the ones who have struggled for years, have parents who could not care less about education, are frequently truant, etc. Teachers working in schools in the upper middle class have a big cultural advantage over the ones who are teaching kids from families where education is not important.

Answer 2

I have never worked in a merit system but have always wondered about a few things. i hope any posters who have worked can address a few things..

how does the school pass out gifted classes.
teachers who choose to work with remedial classes.. are they up for merit pay?
how does the school deal with language learners in the system?
How do you measure special education merit?
Is it simply test scores? who gets the credit in a secondary system where the child has 6 or 7 teachers?
Do art, music and physical education teachers qualify for merit? how? what criteria is used in your system?
how does administration affect merit pay?

yes, it does seem like alot of questions, but I really am curious.

Answer 3

The merit pay system works in private and parochial schools where there is no such thing as tenure and contracts are only from year to year. Under those circumstances most teachers become motivated and stay that way.

Answer 4

Yes, all it does is bring down moral, and make the teachers dislike and be suspicious of each other.