Merit Pay Demise Essay examples

Merit Pay is a topic of investigation because even though it rewards great teachers many lawmakers, educators, and teacher’s union are opposed to it.

In the article “Education at Crossroads part 2” Vicki Viotti discusses the underfunding for schools statewide and teacher evaluations. “Our schools are creating a very different system, one system for rich children and one system for poor or middle-class children”(Viotti pg.2 par.2). Private schools spend an average of $15,000 to $25,000 per student, while the rate for public schools is much lower- $11,800 per student. This is a big issue with the new president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, Corey Rosenlee, who ran for president because of the amount of inequality he saw in the school system. Another issue Rosenlee wishes to render is teacher evaluations. “45 percent of a teacher evaluation for some teachers is based on student learning

The problem with Karmanos’ idea is that there’s no provision for merit pay in Michigan, lousy teachers and great teachers make the same as long as they have equal seniority and education. That’s a recipe for mediocrity in any industry. Teacher quality won’t significantly improve until pay is linked directly to performance.

After reading everything posted in the merit pay debate I think the merit-based pay system should not be used for teachers. I think that basing a teacher’s pay on how well their students test is unfair. The students may be learning in the class, but don’t take tests very well. Tests don’t always determine how much students have learned. Also some teachers may be put in a classroom with students who are at the bottom percent of the grade. Many of these students may have learning problems or English may be their second language, and a teacher should not be penalized for stepping up to teach this type of class. Also teachers that are teaching in urban areas may have a harder time getting their students to do well on tests because these students

The use of merit pay to obtain, retain, and affect student achievement is a lesser used, but not unknown, methodology. In the 1920s, 40 to 50 percent of all urban school districts adopted a merit pay plan. Interest waned and then resurfaced in the 1950s and, by 1960; one in ten public schools adopted a form of merit pay. Interest declined in the 1970s and rose again in the 1980s, and in 2010.

Are teachers doing their best to help students, should they even be paid? Teachers always a have a huge impact on people's future and life, for all the work they do for their students. Public school teachers get paid seventeen percent lower pay than a college teacher would.(Strauss 5). And most public school teachers work a second job to support themself and their family. The effects of strong teaching has a direct impact on the students, the quality of teaching, and the classroom’s environment.

Many people wonder if teachers should or should not get paid more than they do. A lot of people believe that teachers should get paid more, but there are some that do not. Parents that want their kids to have a good education want teachers to get paid more. For example, P.V Derkachev said, “… teacher pay influences the quality of education.” (Derkachev 574). Teachers that get payed more would be more likely to perform better at their job and not mind the extra time that they have to do stuff outside of work to get everything done. Matt Barnum said, “Higher salaries --- even small bonuses ---- can and do keep some teachers in the classroom, and likely improve outcomes for their students.” (Barnum). The student is going to get taught better if teachers get paid more because the teacher will want to teach at the best of her ability which will help the student.

School districts all over the country has instituted merit pay into their programs in various programs. A widely discussed state is in Denver, Colorado where its voters in 2005 approved a $25 million funding boost in teacher pay. Under this plan, one of the factors that can increase a teacher’s pay is additional coursework and advanced degrees received by the teacher. In San Francisco, a new plan that has been implemented is pay increase for teachers at a hard to staff school. Since it is a new plan, there hasn’t been an official analysis of it yet. plan, which has not produced sufficient data or analysis as of yet. In New York, two districts have merit pay type plans which are pretty similar and are not for achieving certain goals rather than

Of course, there are benefits to teaching. For one, there is no school during the summer; however, with such low pay rate many teachers, especially those attempting to support a family, must get a summer job which takes that advantage away. One of the downsides of merit pay bringing in more teachers is the same as mentioned early. There is no guarantee that one would in fact get the raise merit pay promises. As said before, there is no special skill required that one teacher may have that another could never gain, instead the idea is to grow in teachers the inherent desire to be the best that they can be, and if a young person entered the educational field with that goal in mind, there would be nothing stopping them from receiving a merit

Following this further, this form of measurement leads to, yet another, pitfall, such as creating a narrowed curriculum (Ramirez, 2010, p. 56). Teachers may perhaps start teaching “to the test”. This unnatural, narrow curriculum may diminish the American education system’s progress. Do we want our children being educated as robots? As a teacher in training, I am instructed that we are to not only teach for academic success, but to bestow tools to generate well rounded effective citizens.

“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” This quote by Sydney J. Harris notes that schooling provides opportunities and guides career paths. The effectiveness of teachers can cause a generation of workers, parents, and students to prosper or fail. Yet, with such a burden on their shoulders, they have one of the lowest paying professions. Teachers deserve more money than $54,740 to $58,170 a year. Merit pay should be incorporated into all U.S. school systems.

The argument has been made that so-called high stakes testing has caused district administrators, principals, and even teachers to focus more on teaching to the tests rather than providing instruction that is more well-rounded and perhaps more interesting to both educators and students (Au, 2011). However, regardless of how administrators, principals, and teachers may perceive standardized testing, the reliance on standardized test scores as a measure of school district effectiveness has resulted in educators attempting to find means to increase those scores that are deemed to be lower than acceptable (McNeil, Coppola, Radigan & Heilig,

Imagine a world where a car dealer is assessed, not on his own work but on how many cars his colleagues sell? A pretty unfair world that would be, too bad it’s a reality for teachers. However, in this scenario, teachers are assessed by how well their students do on their standardized tests. Schools all around the globe use standardized tests to base their entire curriculum. If a teacher cannot “teach” their students the test, a poor few are eventually fired and replaced by another teacher who can “teach” the test better. Not only are children stressed about taking the test, but the teachers are as well. A post from a New York art teacher explained that he was judged on a subject that he didn’t even teach. His teaching score dropped from an

Bill Lee said, “Priority number one is teacher pay. It can be accomplished. We need to rise to number one.” It is no easy task to go from number 37 on the teacher pay scale to number one, but we have to be committed. These teachers in New York could be getting paid more for their population, or it could simply be the quality of the education. If we based salary on quality of education, teachers would be paid

Going back to the tenure and teacher union issues, I agree that everyone has the right to unionize in order to protect their self-interests, but the idea surrounding tenure is something that needs to be re-evaluated, and the teacher’s union needs to jump on board in order to get the education system moving in the right direction. The writers hint at a way in which tenure can be changed, and that is by offering rewards for high student grades instead of the current rule of once tenure is reached, a teacher can keep their position regardless of their efforts in the classroom. The way the movie presents this alternative method is by showing a challenge between the teachers of the school to earn the highest student grades on the state test; winner earning a bonus of $5,700. This type of evaluation based on student grades can also be taken to the opposite end of the spectrum, and teachers who have unacceptable student scores should be evaluated on their teaching methods, and if seen