Merit Pay for Teachers is a Bad Idea
by Brother Rogers
Our political leaders in Jackson want to improve education in Mississippi. I applaud their good intentions, but fear they are about to jump on the bandwagon of the latest gimmick, merit pay for teachers.
In theory, it sounds like a good idea. Pay good teachers more. Pay bad teachers less. This incentive will make teachers perform better, which will raise test scores and improve public education.
Merit pay, along with charter schools, is the latest fad in education. I am skeptical about fads. Dianne Ravitch, former assistant secretary of education for President George Bush and renowned education historian, writes, "We have a national infatuation with fads, movements, and reforms, which invariably distract us from the steadiness of purpose needed to improve our schools." Her book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, should be required reading for all state legislators.
In education, there are no shortcuts and no silver bullets, no quick fixes to intractable problems. But that’s what our leaders are looking for.
The reformers mean well. They think they can fix education by applying the principles of market reform. But going to school is not the same as going shopping.
First, how do we determine who the best teachers are? We can’t use test scores of students. Paying teachers to raise test scores leads to one major outcome: teaching to the test. Teaching to the test narrows the curriculum and limits creative learning opportunities.
Surely a calculus teacher’s students will test better than the general math teacher’s students. So why would any good teacher want to teach challenging students if pay is linked to tests? How do we test the students of the art teacher and the band director to see if one of them deserves a merit pay raise? There is no fair way to implement this scheme.
Second, in a meeting with legislators in August, a respected expert from the Southern Regional Education Board warned that research shows that monetary bonuses don’t improve teacher performance. This warning appeared to fall on deaf ears.
Using the logic of merit pay, lawmakers would enact better laws if they could earn a bonus. But surely they are doing their best already. It is the same with teachers.
Other than ministers, teachers are about the most altruistic group I know. No one goes into teaching to get rich. Of course, all teachers would like more money (and they deserve it). But unlike the private sector, teachers are not motivated by profit. If teachers are offered more money, they aren’t going to teach better. Teachers are already doing their best because they care about their students. I also wonder how merit pay would affect teacher morale because teachers work more like teammates than competitors.
The landmark 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, recommended establishing higher requirements for new teachers and increasing overall teacher compensation. Those were good ideas then and are just as sound today.
All of us want progress in public education. Progress means not just changing, but changing for the better. Merit pay is not a change for the better. It is a fad that will use scarce resources in an unproductive way. Let’s hope it’s not too late to stop this political train from leaving the station.
In theory, it sounds like a good idea. Pay good teachers more. Pay bad teachers less. This incentive will make teachers perform better, which will raise test scores and improve public education.
Merit pay, along with charter schools, is the latest fad in education. I am skeptical about fads. Dianne Ravitch, former assistant secretary of education for President George Bush and renowned education historian, writes, "We have a national infatuation with fads, movements, and reforms, which invariably distract us from the steadiness of purpose needed to improve our schools." Her book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, should be required reading for all state legislators.
In education, there are no shortcuts and no silver bullets, no quick fixes to intractable problems. But that’s what our leaders are looking for.
The reformers mean well. They think they can fix education by applying the principles of market reform. But going to school is not the same as going shopping.
First, how do we determine who the best teachers are? We can’t use test scores of students. Paying teachers to raise test scores leads to one major outcome: teaching to the test. Teaching to the test narrows the curriculum and limits creative learning opportunities.
Surely a calculus teacher’s students will test better than the general math teacher’s students. So why would any good teacher want to teach challenging students if pay is linked to tests? How do we test the students of the art teacher and the band director to see if one of them deserves a merit pay raise? There is no fair way to implement this scheme.
Second, in a meeting with legislators in August, a respected expert from the Southern Regional Education Board warned that research shows that monetary bonuses don’t improve teacher performance. This warning appeared to fall on deaf ears.
Using the logic of merit pay, lawmakers would enact better laws if they could earn a bonus. But surely they are doing their best already. It is the same with teachers.
Other than ministers, teachers are about the most altruistic group I know. No one goes into teaching to get rich. Of course, all teachers would like more money (and they deserve it). But unlike the private sector, teachers are not motivated by profit. If teachers are offered more money, they aren’t going to teach better. Teachers are already doing their best because they care about their students. I also wonder how merit pay would affect teacher morale because teachers work more like teammates than competitors.
The landmark 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, recommended establishing higher requirements for new teachers and increasing overall teacher compensation. Those were good ideas then and are just as sound today.
All of us want progress in public education. Progress means not just changing, but changing for the better. Merit pay is not a change for the better. It is a fad that will use scarce resources in an unproductive way. Let’s hope it’s not too late to stop this political train from leaving the station.