I was planning an in-depth look at Merit Pay what with Obama’s recent backing — well, not necessarily recent, it isn’t as if he hasn’t suggested this idea before. While he was still on the campaign trail in late ’07, he was already endorsing the idea of “merit pay”, but avoiding the term, with the reluctant blessing of the NEA.
Now, the thing is, if you google ‘merit pay’ and ‘education’ and even-and-especially those two plus ‘Obama’ you can find a million different opinions on the topic. These make a general shift: from “Is merit pay good for teachers?” to “Is merit pay good for education?”
The real problem is, what educator, or really anyone already entrenched in the education system professionally, can answer that second one honestly?
Teachers are doing noble work, but they (or, I should probably say, ‘we,’ since it will happen soon enough) still have their own interests to look out for. And while what affects teachers will inevitably affect education in some way, shape, or form…well, there’s a certain variable in the intensity of the effect that is dependent on the teachers themselves (or administrators, etc.).
Obama’s ‘merit pay’, as it says in the article, does not base teacher pay solely on standardized test scores, but does give rewards to teachers whose students score well. This could, as proponents say, encourage innovation; but just like so many other practices in education, it also depends on where it’s done. It perpetuates the already ever-present complications of SES (socioeconomic status) of the districts teachers work in — is it fair, for example, to offer the same…we’ll call them ‘performance bonuses’ to avoid the tricky term that so many people take arms against. So is it fair to offer the same performance bonuses to teachers in high-SES districts that one might offer to those in low-SES districts?
Take into account the fact that there are many, many factors affecting low-SES students that do not generally affect those from high-SES backgrounds. Hunger, homelessness, parent absence, unsafe neighborhoods. These students are already part of an education system that doesn’t necessarily give them the same things that it does to higher-SES students, simply because low-SES neighborhoods can’t match the same financial backing of schools as high-SES neighborhoods. These students not only generally score lower on standardized exams than high-SES students, but then get fewer resources from the education system to boot.
Considering this, the question becomes, in part: how can we hold teachers accountable for aspects like these, which have such a strong affect on student performance? Would performance bonuses for teachers in, say, a higher-class suburban district, be much more than giving themselves a pat on the back?
Necessity is the mother of invention, not performance bonuses — or merit pay. And I can’t help but think that, if a teacher is only putting in their best work and innovation when you dangle that carrot in front of their nose, maybe they should look at another career.
Of course, then there’s the idea of simply rewarding them for work well-done. But again, how can that work on a larger scale when a teacher in the south Bronx may have to work twice as hard to help their students try to meet standards as someone in, say, the Hamptons? Are we really rewarding effort with this?
These, of course, are an argument against it.
But then, there’s also a logical argument for it, in a way — and that’s best given perhaps by people in areas where teachers are grossly overpaid, with their unions who enthusiastically protect while their schools and their students are suffering budget cuts. It may seem like an unrealistic scenario, but it happens. As a resident of Long Island, I can attest to that. Within my own education classes I hear constant stories of people who’ve been searching for teaching jobs for sometimes as long as several years.
And in the current educational climate, with NCLB having created a fierce need for low-performing districts to change, why can teachers not find jobs?
Because, it turns out, these people are looking for teaching jobs only on Long Island. If you recommend teaching in the city, you may very well be looked at as if you suggested they walk off a bridge.
Long Island teachers’ unions can manage to refuse to give up salary raises in times when hard-hit districts are already forced to make copious budget cuts by saying the raises are contractually obligated. Districts then have to struggle to meet these demands while cutting programs, calling for tax raises on already irate communities and laying off faculty altogether.
So this comes to my point (aren’t you glad?):
Is it merit pay that’s bad for education, or the politics of teachers’ unions when they’re put to the wrong use?
Now, as a future educator, I did make sure to mention “wrong use.” Moreover, it’s the general, pervasive selfishness, those sorts of politics, that cause this problem. Where is the line between teachers protecting themselves and the “looking out for me” mentality that can destroy a school?
One has to wonder if, were these teachers to suspend their contractual salary increases for a year, less of that money would have to come from the students’ academic experiences. Granted, it wouldn’t save the entire district from economic hardship, but if it can save one afterschool program, or a colleagues job…
And if the money is such a dire problem for the unions, because Long Island’s cost of living is admittedly abysmal, why not only raise the salaries of those teachers making under a set amount? Because teachers making over that set amount would howl, no doubt.
I’m sure, as a future teacher, I would be expected to side with the unions on this; however, to give perspective, the mother of someone I know well from school and live close to was a high school math teacher. They had a place in the summer for when they went skiing every year. I can’t imagine anyone would be able to afford that if they couldn’t already more-than-afford their first home, the food on the table, other assorted necessities. And, when I was younger, they had her teach either a class of regents (non-honors) students, or a mixed-ability class. I can’t quite remember. What I do remember is that she proceeded to complain that she was going to have to teach “the dumb kids.”
But damned if she wouldn’t get a pay raise that might have been contractually obligated.
This is still about merit pay, but there’s more than one place I can point to in order to question the good of teachers’ unions to education. Unfortunately, some are just inherent — like general teacher union opposition to charter schools. These schools are generally good for students, and I’m not going to link to pros and cons to that effect because they would require quite a lot of linkage, but it would certainly be an easy search if you want to pop it into a search engine. But the more students in these specialized public schools, the fewer in regular ones. Less enrollment means less funding. Those two can mean faculty layoffs and a whole barrage of other negative impacts on teachers.
So, essentially, the sheer existence of charter schools, coupled with their success, could be considered a threat to public school teachers’ careers.
But they’re good for the students.
Now what? Well, the teachers’ unions are going to focus on the former, because that’s their job. Enter all the messy politics that ensure, wherein students can become completely lost from the equation.
What I think we need more of, all around, is personal responsibility in the case of all teachers as well as parents and administrators an other stakeholders in education. But certainly the teachers. I know, I know — as it is, there’s already enough a teacher is held accountable for. But shouldn’t a teacher have some sort of personal responsibility — not just a federally, state, town, district, or school-mandated one — to consider their students’ well-being, by sheer virtue of being a teacher?
With merit pay there needs to be balance — teachers can’t be penalized for circumstances beyond their control, especially if they’re willing to work within those circumstances, while there are plenty of people still waiting to find a job in a safe, ‘easy’ sort of district while schools in NYC lose funding. Likewise, I do agree that certain teachers could stand to put in a little more effort for some of their summer homes. And most importantly, a distinction needs to be made between the two kinds of teachers, as one certainly isn’t the other.
And just like merit pay needs balance, so do the politics of teacher careers and salaries — a little readjustment, a lot of introspection. For some, depending on their motivations and how that affects their performance as a teacher, career readjustment might be in order. Maybe a review of why teachers teach is in order for everyone.
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