More on merit pay for teachers - a new study suggesting that there are issues that policy makers are not considering as they promote this model. The report identified in Education Week suggests that those touting merit pay in the private sector are not aware of the scope of it's use or the negative consequences that emerge. For example:
In education, though, Mr. Rothstein maintains "most policymakers who now promote performance incentives and accountability, and scholars who analyze them, seem mostly oblivious to the extensive literature in economics and management theory documenting the inevitable corruption of quantitative indicators and the perverse consequences of performance incentives that rely on such indicators."
Or, a statement that certainly is true in the teaching profession. "A general lesson from this part of the economy is that when you have jobs where it’s very hard to identify all the dimensions of productivity, and when it’s hard to measure all the individual contributions of productivity, formulaic pay plans tend to be suspect and to do more harm than good," said Mr. Heywood."
As before I encourage you to read the comments where one person suggests that EPI, the organization supporting the study is a pro-union think tank. The fun never ends.
More developments on the national standards watch. As reported in the Washington Post, the governor's in 46 of the states have signed on to draft common reading and math standards, K-12. Once complete, states would have autonomy to decide whether or not to adopt the standards. Why agree to the process as our governor has if there isn't the intent to sign on when complete?
Our Ed. Secretary describes this development in this way. "This is the beginning of a new day for education in our country," U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. "A lot of hard work is ahead of us. But this is a huge step in a direction that would have been unimaginable just a year or two ago." "This is the beginning of a new day for education in our country," U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. "A lot of hard work is ahead of us. But this is a huge step in a direction that would have been unimaginable just a year or two ago."
This is certainly a different direction than local control. Is it needed?
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4 comments:
The report had some interesting points. When I think about merit pay, I guess I would say that I am not completely against it, I just do not know how you evaluate it. One of my big concerns is if it is based on student performance on standardized tests then it seems that there could be a lot of problems. I think one thing that the business world does not understand is that when you work for a business and you are judged on how well you do your job, in most businesses this is up to you and you alone, you control that fate. In education though, merit of how well kids do has a lot more factors then just how well you do something.
As an example, I feel that I am a quality math teacher, not the best, but quality. But I cannot force my kids to learn and I cannot I fire the students that are not performing (nor am I suggesting that I want to). But in the business world when the people you supervise do not cut it, you can let them go. If the people you supervise do not do the work, then they will need to find a new job. Now I can motivate my students, I can help them with every extra minute I have in a day, and I can teach them in differeintiated ways. But I cannot force them to do the work, I cannot force families to be a part of their child's education, and I cannot control the things that happen in each of my 90 students lives outside of school that will affect how they come to school each day. What I can do is teach them with the best skills and abilities I possess, I can care for them when they are with me my 6.5 hours a day, and I can be the best teacher that I know I can be.
If we are going to look at merit pay, I do not have a perfect formula or any idea of where it would start. I just know that merit should include the smile we all give our kids when they come to school in the morning, the motivation we give them to never give up, the hours and hours of time we give outside of the school day to help understand each kids needs, the extra steps financially we all take so this kid can go on a field trip or have school supplies, and finally the reason that most if not all teachers are doing this job, because we love being with kids.
So how is that measured? How does that all fit in the mix? That is the problem, classrooms are not businesses and therefore you can not just rate teachers on performance of their students. We do not all have the same kids, with the same abilities, and therefore you never have a level playing field.
Someday this will all come to a head. Unions will fight it for their reasons, legislators will always love it because they believe it will be the big solution to the education crisis, teachers will sit on the fence with some on both sides, districts will do the same (though I believe that many probably are more for it than yourself Mike), and I believe that communities, families, and businesses like it because they truly believe they know what will make education better.
With that said, I think that we also do have merit pay in a form. We have differientated pay for people with experience, level of education, bonuses for those who get National Boards, and more pay for those with master's degree's.
Thank you Mike for the continued dialogue on this topic. I think it is one that will continue to be with us for years to come and I think the crucial conversations about positives and negatives of merit pay blueprints should be had more often.
Mike and Scott-
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on merit pay, gentlemen. I guess I share some of the same concerns as you two do when it comes to the fairness of its distribution.
As to the development of common national math and reading standards, I do wonder if it's necessary. Will national standards meet the needs of the nation’s diverse population, or will some school districts suffer a loss of motivation for innovation because the bar is now set too low? Will ‘standardization’ lead to ‘quality assurance’ for all students, or will the sparse resources available for education be allocated just to meet these new goals?
I believe most educators share the understanding that successful education is predicated on students becoming lifelong learners, not just attaining a certain level of math and reading competence by 12th grade.
Is there a math or reading level that a student could meet in 12th grade that would predict their continued lifelong diligence to learning?
As politicians ride the pendulum of basic skills to thinking skills and back again, hopefully we can keep our efforts focused on teaching every child…the whole child...and provide them all with ample basic skills, sophisticated thinking skills, and well practiced habits of mind.
Arthur L. Costa guides us to provide:
1). judiciously selected content
2). instruction in thinking skills
3). challenging tasks requiring the application of and reflection on skillful thinking,
all of which leads to
4). habituating certain dispositions toward thinking or habits of mind.
Sure would be nice if the national standards were developed around Mr. Costa’s model.
Jonathan
Scott,
I agree that this will not go away and that there are many unresolved issues that must be answered before teachers and others in the profession will support a compensation model based on merit. With the President’s 2010 budget adding over $400 million to the opportunity for systems to implement performance pay models, however, there will be many systems moving in that direction.
Mike
Jonathan,
You pose some interesting questions. It will take millions of dollars to identify a set of common standards with no guarantee that they will change the quality of instruction in classrooms across the country. This money will come from the existing pot so yes, resources will be diverted to this effort.
I don’t know that there is any single factor that can predict an individual’s commitment to learning beyond their K-20 experiences. I lean towards a focus on our Outcomes and Indicators and Habits of Mind as better preparation for success in post high school learning and work than meeting national standards on standardized tests. Given this, I also believe in the necessity and importance of meeting literacy and mathematics standards as an equally important part of the foundation of future success. Do they need to be national standards? Not necessarily.
Thanks for the comment.
Mike
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