Merit Pay Back in the News

Time Magazine pubished a piece yesterday entitled, "How to Make Great Teachers," raising the issue -- annual, it seems -- of merit pay vs. the present system of college credit/years in service for pay.

I think I've commented on merit pay before, and think it's a good idea. Teacher friends decry merit pay, suggesting that it would be a biased system. However, having worked for magazines, newspapers, and Internet companies that all gave raises based on merit, I concede bias can be an issue, but should not be the reason to avoid merit pay.

As a writer and as a web producer (the person who manages the bits and pieces of the site), I had goals that my manager and I reviewed and agreed upon at the beginning of the year (or work cycle). I do that now, as a classroom teacher, with my AP; I provide three goals based on district, school site, and classroom standards and suggest how I will meet those goals.

The merit systems described once again, this time by writer Claudia Wallis, relies on test results. Wallis dutifully trots out the test-based review, suggesting that "in an era when states are testing all students annually, there's a new, less subjective window onto how well a teacher does her job."

I don't agree. This era's so-called objective tests are arguably subjective:  who writes the tests?; questions favor white, male students; have you read the prompts from the CAHSEE written exam?; material (the history test for 10th graders in California routinely includes materials that are NOT part of state standards for history); but most importantly, a one-day, all or nothing approach provides a sliver -- and an unclear sliver -- of student performance.

I do not ignore test results altogether. In fact, I review STAR scores to assess teaching needs for my classroom. However, a test should be only one measure of my overall success for that year. Classroom management, invovative lessons, literacy strategies, technology instruction are other areas for consideration.

It seems I am not alone in feeling this as Wallis notes, "Teachers rebelled against the notion that a year's worth of instruction could be judged by how students did on a single test on a single day."

Merit pay, however, could be the "next big thing" in keeping teachers in the classroom. "In Denver, for example, Professional Compensation, or ProComp, is the product of a seven-year collaboration among the teachers' union, the district and city hall. Rolled out last school year, ProComp includes nine ways for teachers to raise their earnings, some through bonuses and some through bumps in salary. New hires are automatically enrolled, while veterans have the option of sticking with the old salary schedule. But in just one year, half of Denver's 4,555 teachers have signed on." Huh, I wonder what the wonder package is. (Note: I will look it up.)

Comments

[Cynthia]

Hi.
I am interested in your thoughts about merit pay. I would want to mention that teaching to the test in New York (Regents) has dumbed down the level of real learning. Merit pay based upon standardized testing does not say much about the ability of a teacher, so how can merit pay truly be meaningful under No Child Left Behind.

[Louise]

I agree that merit pay could be a good thing if not tied exclusively to the results of one standardized test. I found the comments made in the article by Taylor Betz interesting. She is obviously a very dedicated teacher. Yet, she was surprised to find that receiving merit pay made her even more driven.

[Ms. Cornelius]

If my raises were determined by test results, then cozying up to the department chair and the principal would become my favorite past-time. Why? Because one's teaching schedule would be KEY.

Example: Mr. "I teach nothing but Honors classes" would have fabulous test scores -- not to mention his cushy teaching load. He also has a history of writing up every kid who even looks at him crossways, so those kids don't stick around in his classroom long.

Since teacher C seems to have a habit of not shrieking in terror when a kid comes in with half of his face tattooed, however, she tends to get the more challenging students whose test scores are far from pristine. And even though they do make great strides in her class, they certainly don't earn the highest test scores.

And in every system I've ever seen there's only so much money to go around. So there will be loads of subjectivity involved in who gets the raises. My husband is a manager in the business world-- and I know he's been ordered to change evaluations so that a person would not be eligible for a raise that would then cut into an exec's bonuses.

Those who are given the hardest students to teach will be doubly punished--a rough, exhausting workday, and no chance in hell of ever receiving any merit pay.

[fredthefish]

>>Since teacher C seems to have a habit of not shrieking in terror when a kid comes in with half of his face tattooed, however, she tends to get the more challenging students whose test scores are far from pristine. And even though they do make great strides in her class, they certainly don't earn the highest test scores.

I couldn't help but laugh at this description, or agree with it more.

I do, however, think it is possible to evaluate people on their work (setting goals, etc.) that does not include test scores.

Test scores for pay doesn't tell me how music teachers will be evaluated, for example. And, is it really the PE teacher's sole responsibility to get her kids to pass the fitness test when she has 50 students in a class?

[msward]

Wow! Looks like your post has sparked a lot of discussion. I very much enjoy reading your blog, so I hope you don't mind if I tag you with a new meme. I thought you might find it interesting. Check it out on my blog.

--Jen

[Travis]

How is merit pay going to entice more quality teachers to the profession or keep them in the profession? Teachers don't get into teaching because of money. They do it to affect children's lives in a way no other profession can. Merit pay will make teachers either teach to the test or move to the schools that have the higher achieving students. Teaching is a tough enough job without worrying about how your class scores on the state mandated tests.

When was the last time someone was asked in a job interview what they scored on the state mandated test? I think corporations want employees to think outside the box.

Merit pay is a great sounding phrase, but it is something that can't be implemented fairly. The reason we have the steps and increments pay we have now is because it is simple.

[fredthefish]

I, for one, am over the whole "teachers aren't doing it for the money" argument. You're right, I didn't go into teaching to become a millionaire, but I also don't need to take it in the shorts. Insurance for my spouse would cost an additional $500 a month -- if we have kids, add $500 per child. That is a little more than a third my monthly paycheck.
Paying people on merit may not encourage others to teach, but it may balance a system that is inequitable and antiquated.

[Lisa]

It is interesting that you mentioned Denver as an example of merit pay. The actual school district in Denver has the highest teacher turn over rate in the state. One of the reasons being the cycle of students and families that do not-for whatever reason-value education, so there is a high-dropout rate, low test scores and no support. The only thing DPS could do was offer some kind of incentive to keep any teachers, let alone highly qualified teachers. They have even closed schools and hired and rehired a superintendent more years than I've been in teaching. I would hope that the idea behind merit pay will not be based on this kind of situation.

[reinstate@freewill.com]

reinstate@freewill.com

As people begin to age the gods employ corrupting tactics. They ultimately begin to look down on the children and the wisdom they recently understood:::
They voluntarily turn their back on their opportunity to ascend and instead embrace evil.
It's not old people who go to heaven. Old people must come back because of the mistakes they've made throughout their lives. Children are the ones who have the opportunity to ascend.

Children are discounted by adults in society. The gods corrupt people as they age, use trust-building tactics and soon adults view the children as ignorant, yet to understand the god's system, and subsequently look down on the children. This is one of the most bitter, painful ironies the gods employ, for people consciously turn their back on and lose their opportunity to ascend::::
Religions teach that old people to go to heaven when they die. They don't. Old people are reincarnated. It's the children who go to heaven, those who have a chance at immortality.
The wisdom the gods impart to children, either through their innocence/purity or religious-based educational pursuits are the gods sharing the truth with their most favored people::::It's the children whom the gods teach the right way for it is the children who have a chance. For example, they teach children to have faith, for understanding the god's geographical clues hurts people by illustrating negative things, opening the door for the god's to employ deceptive tactics.
Old people don't go to heaven. Old people must come back because of the mistakes they've made throughout their lives. It's the children who have the opportunity to go to "heaven". They must behave apprioriately, think correctly and be genuinely god-fearing. Their innocence and lack of desensitization ensures they have a real opportunity to achieve this goal.

This is charecteristic of the gods methodology::::The big prize gone early, deception compels people to chase something that has already been decided. They sent this clue with boss as well. It is also a clue supporting my claim RW&B's german is in fact Christianity's Anti-Christ. Logic also dictates, considering the definition.
The confusion over this multi-dimentional positioning will serve as an effective tactic, eliminating many additional disfavored in the process, for positioning states the Apocalypse to be a continuation of WorldWarII's Aryan superrace ideals, positioned as punishment for the 5th century invastion of the Roman Empire:::John's Fourth Reich.
This amounts only to "nested theater":::::Levels of positioning enables the gods to scapegoat:::::RW&B merely is the tool the gods chose to execute the final scene of their scripted theater that is human history.

Just as they would have had me chase boss so would they have wanted me to sign on to this theater, evil by definition, and chase this role of Anti-Christ. By doing so I would have incurred evil and would have been punished, painfully "losing" Anti-Christ in the process.
Does that mean RW&B is not the Anti-Christ?? I suspect as they would have "offered" it to me so will there be a fake Anti-Christ for those in these generations to accept as well. But it is a clone host. This is ALL clone host theater, created not as a clue to me but instead designed to be preditory on the disfavored, designed to increase indecency and further the god's goal of justification towards The End.
We were all merely peasants centuries ago, struggling with our disfavor, but without the enormity of temptations, real and telepathic, which exist today.

They have shared I was positioned to some disfavored as the Second Coming of Christ, explaining all the evil surrounding me and RW&B's placement in the "eye of The Beast" was to positon the sabotage of my candidacy (Damien Omen, Big Army Men, etc).
The Big Lie of course is that Christianity is evil. The reverse positioning nature of Planet Earth dictates that good is demonized, as we wintessed in World War II, while evil is put on a pedistal, as we see with the Italians.
The truth? The gods used their tools to create this and the rest of the incidents surrounding this Situation to distract the people from my message, for I speak the truth:::Only you can save you. You have to be responsible for your own relationship with the gods.

The gods are asexual. They have no sex organs nor rectums.
When the gods take children these individuals have the opportunity to become "god-like". Temptations are employed and, if sucessful, these are the individuals who make up the human race's immortals.
I believe there are opportunities that exist for females that do no exist for males. I don't mean to paint with a broad brush but women's "sexual peak" may represent the transistion to "sociological males" and their "fall from grace". Considering today's promiscuity I question whether this is currently applicable, and is yet anther 20th century-earlier phenominah.
I believe Purgatory is real. I think it is a temporary destination, perhaps sparsely utilized until the Apocalypse, but this will be the destination for those who "ascend" during the event. As they've said this planet will too be disposed of one day and it is imperative people try to avoid that destination, for there may be no escaping its fate.