The Opinionator

Merit Pay

The revelation that no one knows what constitutes good teaching should come as no surprise. To some, good teaching is closely connected to setting a good example in patriotism or religion. To others it is someone who emphasizes basic education, focusing on instilling facts ahead of critical thinking and building self esteem. To others, good teaching demands a nurturing and accepting mentor who can turn into a hardliner when the situation demands it.

It is naïve to argue that we must define good teaching before we can improve it. There is no single definition, just as there is no single definition of what makes a good artist or a good soldier. If we knew what made good teaching we could have merit pay and lift many teachers from their impoverished underclass status. This would be so much easier if teaching were a technology and trade schools could be opened all over the country. Unfortunately, that is not the way humans learn.

And yet we see many political campaigns which promise to introduce merit pay and to devise ways to better control teacher unions and/ or schools of education which are scapegoated whenever people get discouraged and frustrated about how kids are doing in school.

Contrary to much opinion, the resistance to merit pay is not the labor unions trying to protect the marginal. There is simply a belief that agreeing on what is good teaching is an impossible task, certainly one to be kept out of the hands of unqualified politicians who seem more committed to placating critics than improving schools.

Presently the world rewards teachers based on their years of experience and the level of education that they have attained. There is usually what they call a “career ladder” at work. When you start teaching you start on the first step, and if you are effective you advance, often annually, up the career ladder. Additionally, if you seek more academic credits such as moving from a Bachelor’s degree to a master’s or doctor’s degree level, you not only move up a rung, but move to a different “track” which is essentially another parallel but more lucrative career ladder.

There is a school of though which argues that teachers should be paid according to how well students score on some form of standardized test. This is usually not done; however, for fear that teachers will want to teach only the best students, not the more challenging ones.

There is another view that teacher pay could be differentiated on the basis of the work year. Teachers willing to do summer tutoring or to develop curriculum during school vacations would be paid more than others. This has met with limited acceptance because many teachers have entered the profession because of the attractive work year with school vacations and July and August off.

In this year’s Massachusetts gubernatorial race, Kerry Healey wants to spend $50 million giving raises to teachers of students who do well on tests. Beyond that, neither candidate has much to say about merit pay.

Perhaps that is due to the fact that Governor Romney had some proposals out there a year or so ago but chose never to pursue them with the legislature. Deval Patrick’s ideas about improving education focus on the early years. He advocates mandatory all day kindergarten, lower class sizes and more pre-school initiatives. Kerry Healey seems to focus on older school children. She supports twice yearly testing to measure progress and increasing the minimum age before a child can drop out of school from 16 to 18.

The reason for wanting to raise the age is to lower the drop out rate. One figure says the state average is that 14% of kids drop out of high school. Kerry Healey argues that this is low and could be as high as 20%. People cannot agree on what is a drop-out rate, but that is the subject of another blog. Healey’s idea of raising the age could cost about $70 million.

Regarding the reduction of class size, the Pioneer Institute, a Massachusetts educational think tank, estimates that it would cost approximately $140 million to reduce average class size from 20 students to 19 students per class. Mandatory all day kindergarten would cost about $73 million.