Some States, Districts Abandoning Performance Pay

Education Week:

Two competing pressures--decreased finances and rising policy interest--have left the future of performance-based teacher compensation uncertain.

A dicey fiscal climate and research that has shown limited impact have led some states and districts to scale back, abandon, or change their fledgling merit-pay programs, causing observers to wonder what the next few years will hold for compensation systems that link teacher pay to student achievement.

Read the whole story

Comments

[cachew]

04:48 AM on 09/19/2011

In addition, some mandates mean that we switch students for part of the day. Students on my roster whose test scores are good or bad were actually instructed by another teacher. I teach students language arts (English) who don't appear on my roster, but another teacher's. Sorting this mess would create more bureaucracy. So much goes on in schools that the public and especially politicians are unaware of.

[GlennWatson]

08:16 PM on 09/18/2011

I called this years ago. They will promise higher pay in exchange for tenure and then take back the higher pay.

[onrecess]

08:27 PM on 09/20/2011

Florida is doing that right now. The new law demands tenure be abolished for merit pay. The Gov says we can pay the merit par FOR ONE YEAR and then each district will pay whatever they can afford, (none).
Our national board certification merit pay? Out of money, sorry. We have the highest percentage of board certified teachers in the country, thanks to "promised" bonuses now unpaid- after teachers paid $2400 for the test.
Our A+ school merit pay? Out of money. Sorry.
Now give up all bargaining rights, bonuses for advanced degrees, training, years of experience and we'll give you a merit bonus ONCE.
Who are the people moronic enough to believe merit pay is about anything other than drying up the last union to support (minimally) Democrats while stealing all the education funding as a "merit" bonus?

[navigio]

02:22 AM on 09/21/2011

and people wonder why teachers dont trust politicians..

[Angie Sullivan]

04:59 PM on 09/18/2011

Bribery and rewards for scores isn't effective when there is no $.

I can't believe that people cannot see the downfall of this system in the first place. Management 101.

[onrecess]

08:28 PM on 09/20/2011

You have been working from a mistaken position. It isn't supposed to work. It was meant to fail and destroy public education. It is working perfectly.

[TurgidCaterwauling]

12:35 PM on 09/17/2011

All classes and all teaching assignments are not equal. AP testing aside, the preponderance of testing on the high school level addresses reading, writing, and math: two-thirds to the English teacher, one third to the math teacher. Merit pay is derived from testing data. How does one assess how well the band, shop. or gym teacher has done? Factor in special needs and that is a far more complex and challenging issue.

[eric14]

02:34 PM on 09/17/2011

I think it is too complex to be fair.

[Andrea Claxton]

09:31 AM on 09/17/2011

I say that merit pay will be good for teachers when it's good for Congress. Let's tie congressional pay to how much they accomplish that improves the lives of Americans and how much better the economy is doing when they end their term from when they entered it. We'll pay each member of Congress based on how many bills they proposed and passed, but deduct for how many they obstructed. Every time they help a constituent, we'll give them another dollar. Hmm. I may be onto something here!

[daughterusmc]

11:30 AM on 09/17/2011

That is the best idea I have heard in a while.

[Vgman]

06:19 AM on 09/17/2011

Merit pay is a dumb idea in education. The jobs of one teacher to the next is so different. The spec. ed. teacher with six preps. and thirty students vs. a gym teacher with one prep. and a hundred and forty students vs. a math teacher with three preps. and one hundred and twenty students, etc.... People who don't teach, don't have a clue. The take home workload is also different as well as the paperwork and the accommodations made for students.

[eceresa]

07:56 PM on 09/16/2011

Sad that we need shrinking budgets to move away from something that doesn't work.

[hypnotoad72]

07:02 PM on 09/16/2011

No incentive = no reward.

Still, Microsoft nixed perks for the MVP program some time ago, so it's not just corporations that are saying "P¡ss on you" to workers.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-trims-mvp-benefits-allows-shareholders-say-on-executives-pay/4019

Workers are not valued.  We're just "costs" that impede their profit.  It's that simple, folks.  Amorality if not immorality.

[roaddawg31]

05:15 PM on 09/16/2011

Merit pay is not the simple thing that many might make it seem... I agree. But there is no doubt that the system needs changing in terms of pay/employment. The biggest thing is that I think mechanisms must be in place that reinforce diversity within the teaching ranks. The current ranks are overpopulated with: white, female, housewife, 40+ year olds... people who cite their hobbies as "scrapbooking, hiking, spending time with family." And lest you think this is me railing against married white mothers--I'm not. I'm just stating that we need all kinds: young, old, white, black, female, male.

The system in place simply rewards drawing within the lines, conformity... and breeds complacency and eventually an entitled sense.

[hypnotoad72]

07:06 PM on 09/16/2011

OMG, how dare people have time to be with families!!

http://www.economist.com/node/21528433

This is causing alarm among middle-grade white-collar workers in the rich world, who saw what happened to manufacturing jobs in their economies. But workers in emerging markets who have those sorts of skills and qualifications are delighted. “I’m making in a week on oDesk what I made in a month as a schoolteacher, and I get to spend far more time with my family,” says Ayesha Sadaf Kamal, a freelance copywriter in Islamabad.

Well, she won't be happy for long once this same vicious circle comes full circle and she loses her job to cheaper workers elsewhere.  Globalization was NEVER about helping peoples' lives globally.  It's a profiting gambit and devaluation of labor.  If it can happen here it'll happen anywhere.

It WILL happen to her, at some point in the future.  She won't be so jubilant then.

Remember,
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/13/general-motors-ceo-urged-to-address-indian-workers-complaints/
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/government/is-apples-suicide-factory-outsourcing-to-even-cheaper-chinese-peasants/9537

Amongst scores of other articles and tangents therein.

[roaddawg31]

08:19 PM on 09/16/2011

Hey stupid, I never said people shouldn't spend time with their families. I was relating "a type" that is prevalent in teaching, and that was one of the characteristics. Either you need to go back to school and improve your comprehension to avoid missing the point, or you a stupidity prodigy.

[DrKatePhD]

04:31 PM on 09/16/2011

Reserach shows that this type of rewards-based program has been proven to be ineffective, that teachers teach no better when merit pay is available.

[hypnotoad72]

07:02 PM on 09/16/2011

Links, please.

I'm sure a whip has helped you be more productive, too. 

Which side of the whip were you on?

[eceresa]

08:24 PM on 09/16/2011

It sounds like you misread her comment; she said merit pay is INeffective. Which it is.

[daughterusmc]

11:39 AM on 09/17/2011

Wouldn't you like to know.