This is going to be a new feature that will run on the week-ends on topics that pique my interests. These topics will usually be educationally related, however, there may be times where I
One of the hot topics in education circles is merit pay. When I had the pleasure of attending the NEA-RA this past summer in Washington, D.C., then Presidential hopeful, Barack Obama spoke to the 10,000 plus teachers assembled. There was much enthusiasm when he spoke, except when he spoke about merit pay. I was astonished and somewhat disappointed in my colleagues when many of them booed him.
As teachers, we are so unwilling to listen to anything that we think goes against our interest. I understand why so many are against merit pay, but what I don't understand is the absolute shutting down of ideas that may be different from our own. The way I see it? If we don't take a place at the table when discussing merit pay, then we will have no say at all when it happens and we definitely won't like it.
I know about the problems that surround merit pay. As a teacher in a school district that routinely loses close to 100 teachers every year due to the stresses of teaching in this district, I understand where my colleagues are coming from. When I have students who are out of school more than they are in school, I don't like the idea of someone holding me accountable for their test scores. As a teacher who has taught GATE students this year and really like what I'm seeing so for on our District testing, guess which group of students I would like to teach every single year if merit pay ever came into play in my District?
I get it and I understand the frustrations that teachers have when it comes to merit pay. However, I also understand that this is something that is not likely to go away anytime soon. Teachers also didn't like the idea of charter schools, but many on the outside did. Charter schools did not go away just because we tried to ignore it.
I would rather that as teachers who I already know are highly intelligent and creative to begin with, join the discussion. We need to listen to the critics. We can no longer sit with our fingers in our ears hoping that the discussion on merit pay will just simply go away.
Recently I was at a staff lunch at my school site. One of the teachers at my table brought up Obama and his new pick to head the DOE, Arne Duncan. She was very displeased with this pick and started to rant about merit pay. After she was done talking, I started to talk about how I felt that it was important for teachers to be leading these talks rather than hoping that if we rant loud enough about our opposition, then the merit pay discussion will simply disappear. As I was talking, she left the table and proceeded to ignore me for the remainder of lunch. I really could not believe it.
However it is something that I see a lot when it comes to some teachers, usually many of whom have been in the trenches a long time. I understand their frustrations. The unfortunate reality is that teachers have a lot of stuff thrown at them by many on the outside who think they know what's best. Then when it doesn't work out, guess who usually gets blamed? Teachers and their lack of "fidelity" to the program. So, I get it.
That being said, I do not think that merit pay is going to go away. Especially not when we have a soon to be President and his choice for DOE already in strong support of it. Therefore, we need to demand a place at the table and demand that those in leadership positions in the NEA and AFT speak to us in the trenches about what we think merit pay ought to look like. To do otherwise is simply put, stupid.
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11 comments:
I like your "sound off" idea. Can't wait for more.
Thanks for airing this issue. You know I have a daughter (Courtney) who is a high-school teacher.
And? YOU HEARD BARACK SPEAK IN PERSON? Lucky.
Wow! Great job putting in to words what is sure to be an interesting debating point in the years to come. You are absolutely right: merit pay may be here to stay and we need to make sure that we have a voice in how it becomes distributed/organized/assigned. For example, I am an ELA teacher, but what about the gym, art, music, health, home and careers teachers? How does one assign 'merit' for student achievement? Are you willing to set up a tier system for teachers...my job is more important/academic than yours, for example, so my salary/bonus will be higher? I think that is why the unions mistrust merit pay: all for one contracts, etc.
Like many ideas about school reform, merit pay is not a bad idea in and of itself. The issue is, of course, how it is implemented. Who decides what "merits" a pay increase. I teach AP English language at a top performing school, and I have a 92% pass rate. One could argue that "merits" high pay, others might say it's easy to teach these kids, and the percentage hasn't changed much. So what would happen to the pay? Should it go up and down. What is the incentive to teach struggling students at struggling schools? I agree with you that teachers must accept the inevitability, and they must be extremely well informed and active about setting the parameters.
You're right that teachers need to be in on the discussion. Who says merit pay needs to be tied to high test scores? It could be tied to improved test scores and merit pay for teaching in lower-performing schools or with lower-performing students.
Sounding off here at your sound off. Teachers definitely need to be at the table when discussing merit pay. And foremost, we need to help decide what criteria we should be judged by.
And someone, somewhere, needs to understand that we are not two dimensional: we don't just give or teach to the TEST; and we are not ENTERTAINERS, which, it seems, are the two things that are most expected of us.
We definitely MUST be part of this conversation!
And if we go this direction, then it must NOT be tied to test scores. I just don't think that would work. (at least not the way we do tests now!)
And how do we work with so many variables?
As others mentioned teachers are scared that pay would be based on test scores, what if there was some other way? Just thinking outloud---parent input, teacher input, peer input, authentic use of technology, observations, innovative teaching methods. Most of the staff in a building know who the "great" teachers are--how could they be rewarded for going that extra mile?
How do we get rid of "bad" teachers?
I don't have much faith in teachers "union" leadership having much of a say on what happens with merit pay or anything else that impacts teachers in our classrooms. IMO, they are too out of touch with the classroom; it has been too long since they taught. Not to mention the fact that the millions of teacher dollars paid to help government "leaders" get elected has resulted in .....what? Every public school teacher in the US is impacted by that poorly written monster legislation known as NCLB. And after years of wailing and gnashing of teeth from the teacher "unions," what has changed? Who in congress has stepped forward with ideas on how to change NCLB to be instructive, informative and useful as opposed to punitive? IMO, teacher dollars paid for elected government leaders to get elected has be money flushed down the toilet. Has government developed a better accounting and monitoring system to keep a close eye on charter schools and how exactly they are spending public money?
IIRC, didn't Denver Public Schools impliment merit pay? I don't recall seeing anything expressing praise, hatred, kudos, etc. about it in the educational media (newspapers, blogging, etc).
As for merit pay, I am against anything that places a teacher in an uncontrollable situation. NCLB has neutered much of the creativity and need for teacher experitise, just teach to the test, that is, teach the students administration puts in your classroom. Students who are not held accountable or responsible for doing what is expected of them. Have you ever taught in a school where the administration rewards their "favorites?" I have. And I shutter to think what merit pay might wrought. IF I am to be judged on my students test scores, then I have to be in control. I pity our school's L.A. teachers; they are teaching a program designed for two class periods (or at least a big block of time), in 45-50 minutes. And most of our students arrive to us, lets just say, no where close to grade level.
I guess President-elect and Mrs. Obama believe in school choice. And their choice was private education for their daughters. I guess they don't have much faith in Ms Rees (?) Washington DC public schools? They are fortunate; they have the choice to send their daughters to Sidwell Friends School because they can afford it. I don't have that option with my son's education.
Bottom line, Yes, I am leery of our teacher "unions" doing much other than bluster about merit pay, school choice, NCLB, etc., and to keep throwing money to politicians.
I'm opposed to merit pay, because it misses the point on why we teach. The best teachers don't teach for a big paycheck. Throwing money at us won't solve the problem. The bigger issues involve giving us more autonomy, more of a voice, more creative control.
I'm president of my local EA and active at the state level in a couple different initiatives. Some thoughts:
*As a local president I don't believe that I could ever support "1 teacher, 1 check" merit pay, where test scores are linked to a specific teacher and that teacher receives money based on their achievement, because I think that's a situation ripe for abuse based on the kids placed with that teacher. Two stories to illustrate the point:
1) A teacher who is very friendly with her principal; the principal has regularly made sure that "tough" kids aren't placed in her room and she gets the cream of the crop. Of course she looks like a great teacher; she's getting better kids.
2) Similarly, there's another teacher who can't handle low kids, especially boys. In the last two years 5 kids have been transferred out of her room after the beginning of the school year because she belittles the students until the parents insist that something be changed. It's easy to differentiate when you drive off anyone who's different.
There would be some potential in ideas like value-added testing, but even that has problems unless you control very closely for variables. When you start doing that and the system becomes to opaque for teachers to understand, the system is doomed.
I think the greatest promise lies in initiatives that reward the whole grade level/department for achievement, because then there's also a team aspect that can be built on.
Polski: A search for "Denver Merit Pay" returns 65,000+ results. It's probably the most studied teacher merit pay plan around.
It'll be interesting to see what comes out of the Obama administration.
When it comes to pay and teachers our society has everything a little sideways. Teachers should have the same pay scale as many other professions such as other professions which reward a job well done. I can count all the teachers whom made a lasting impression on me and the many that didn't. We need more lasting impression teachers and they need to be compensated for a job well done!
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