The Politicians, Pundits, Polemicists, and even some Professors who, of all people, should know better, keep telling us that teachers, especially union members, keep up a mindless litany of “no” at any suggestion of progress. Well, there are some proposed reforms that we are skeptical about. And there are others that are downright insulting, if you think about them a little.
One sacred cow of Reform is Pay for Performance, or Performance Pay, or Incentive Pay – essentially what used to be called Merit Pay. Merit Pay developed a bad reputation among teachers as they thought about some Administrator, with who knows what agenda, deciding, based on who knows what criteria, who has merit and who does not. It probably seemed a bit like having a pastor, appointed by who knows what hierarchy, make the decision of who in his flock will be Elect and who will be Lost. Most Ps don’t use the term Merit Pay anymore. But Pay for Performance? What is wrong with that? What could possibly be wrong with being paid a bonus for doing what was supposed to be your job in the first place?
Where to begin? It has been my experience that most teachers (what to do about the exceptions is a topic unto itself) do what they can with what is available to them, within the administrative structure of the district in which they teach. Teachers seldom have much say in configuring the fields on which they play. Of course they expect to be paid for what they do, but that is a separate issue, in most cases. In many states, teachers’ unions are restricted by law to negotiating salaries and insurance only. Structural matters and school governance issues are off-limits. If teachers feel hampered by a weak or non-existent attendance policy, for example, resulting in poor attendance and out-of-control truancy, that issue is non-negotiable. At least it was where I taught. In lean budget years, there may be over-sized classes with an unfavorable student/teacher ratio. In lean years, there may be no budget to replace lost, damaged, or obsolete books. That is what I mean when I say that most teachers feel that they are already doing all that they can, with what is available with them, within the system in which they teach. Most teachers find the implication that they are deliberately holding back, but might actually do their jobs if paid more, insulting.
Many teachers have problems with the terms used to define performance. The American public school is a most complex institution with a complex constituency, a complex student body, and a complex mission. Teaching is a complex enterprise placing many often competing demands upon the teacher. In Reformist parlance, performance equates with test scores. Test scores are an indicator of a teacher’s performance, for sure, but one of many. Furthermore, test scores are dependent on many underlying factors beyond the classroom teacher’s control. . Over-reliance on scores trivializes the educational enterprise in general and any individual teacher’s job in particular, many teachers feel.
But the biggest problem with basing teacher pay on student performance as measured by standardized tests is that it may simply not work that way.
The Nashville, Tennessee school system offered teachers of grades 5-8 bonuses of $5.000, $10,000, and $15,000 (funded by a private donor) for meeting goals in annual test-score gains, as part of a Vanderbilt University study of teacher compensation systems. The experimental group was offered the bonuses. The control group was not. There were no other variables such as professional development or mentoring between the two groups. In the end, there was no measurable difference in performance between the two groups. The conclusion was that the bonuses failed to motivate teachers to increased performance simply because teachers do what they can with what is available to them, within the administrative structure of the district in which they teach.
I am not surprised. Teachers are skeptical of at least one piece of Reformist ideology for good reason, it seems. Reality trumps ideology every time.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/09/21/1348328/study-teacher-bonuses-dont-affect.html
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/09/21/1348627/study-bonuses-for-teachers-dont.html