Speaking to a gathering of teachers in San Diego today, Education Secretary Arne Duncan called for the creation of a system of "merit pay" for teachers. Such a system would be based in part on students' test scores.
Just as an opening aside, there's absolutely no need for the Department of Education. It was part of the great legacy of lameness left behind by Jimmy Carter in the late 70s. Reagan came to office swearing to get rid of it, but somehow he never got around to consigning it to the ash heap of history like he promised...but that's another story...
The fundamental issue here is merit pay for teachers. The reason that merit pay for teacher is intrinsically unworkable is that it is an attempt to apply capitalist principles to an inherently socialist system. Think about it.
That's basically why merit pay will never happen. It just won't work. So we should stop talking about it. It's an operational non-starter.
Teacher World on July 11, 2009 at 10:14 AM
It seems to me that the best way to improve the quality of education our students receive has little to do with merit pay and more to do with cleaning house. We all know that teacher's unions protect teachers who do remarkably little to educate. I find it ironic that unions care more for teachers than for the students we are hired to educate. I am a teacher and have witnessed for myself this sad phenomenon.
Let's focus our attention on unions not merit pay. Let's adopt fair evaluation procedures that include intervention guidelines for stuggling teachers to follow if they want to improve their performance and keep their jobs. If they are either unwilling or unable to learn and to utilize appropriate teaching strategies, it is imperative that unions allow them to be released from their contracts so that their position can be filled with someone who will.
We don't need merit pay! We need quality schools that hire and keep quality teachers. Such schools would automatically earn the respect and enthusiastic support of their community. My guess is that these communities would be far more willing to support their teachers economically and teachers might finally earn the salaries they deserve.
It's time to encourage and support our unions to clean house and improve the quality of our schools