This lesson was specifically about teacher merit pay. We had to list and describe the pros and cons of teacher merit pay, and describe whether we agreed with the idea or not. Lastly, we had to research a question pertaining to the lesson.
EDUC 2110 – Lesson 10 – Current Fundamental Issues – Teacher Merit Pay
Evaluation
List and describe 2-3 possible advantages of teacher merit pay.
An advantage of merit pay would have to be mainly towards the beginner teachers. With merit role, new teachers are not getting overlooked of their good ideas, high level performance, and motivation in the classroom because they are new, but are getting recognized IF they get their students to perform well on the standardized testing. Usually if teachers are paid more than the other, it’s because one has been teaching for many years. Merit pay doesn’t look at how many years you have in the education field, but how well you perform in your classroom.
Another advantage is that teachers are now getting paid what they deserve. Teachers are already underpaid and merit pay helps with that. Merit pay also helps with motivating the teachers to work their hardest and do their best at teaching their students what needs to be learned.
http://k6educators.about.com/od/assessmentandtesting/a/meritypay.htm
List and describe 2-3 potential disadvantages of teacher merit pay.
A disadvantage that first thing I think of when it comes to merit pay is, number one: unfairness. It’s unfair to the other teachers who are also working hard to help their students understand the required material that will later be on the standardized test, but when it comes down to testing, not all of the teachers are “succeeding” at their jobs, according to their students test scores. When in reality, the teacher that worked the hardest with his/her students on material doesn’t get paid as much as the other teacher down the hall just because his/her students didn’t score high enough.
Another disadvantage would have to be the competition that merit pay sets in the school system between the teachers. When competition occurs, colleagues relationships are at stake. When competition occurs, teachers begin to focus on themselves instead of their students. When one teacher receives a higher pay than the other, there’s envy against that individual. These kind of relationships will continue in the school system if one teacher keeps getting paid more than the other. At this rate, the teachers aren’t focusing on teaching and motivating their students anymore, they’re focusing on teaching and motivating themselves to get ahead of their colleagues.
Do you think that merit pay would improve teacher performance? Why or why not?
I think merit pay would definitely improve a teacher’s performance. I think this because teachers would be getting paid based on how well their students perform on standardized testing. If a teacher wants a good paycheck, he/she is going to try their hardest and put in a lot of effort to get all students to understand the material that will be on the standardized test.
Where do YOU stand on the merit pay for teacher’s issue? Provide some reasons why you agree or disagree with the concept.
I don’t like the idea of merit pay, personally. I disagree with the concept because there are teachers who do their best, and do everything they could possibly do to help their students understand material and yet, some just don’t get it. There are some subjects that some individuals are bad at. A teacher’s pay shouldn’t be based off of their student’s performance level. It should be based off of if the teacher is teaching the material or not.
Reward systems have been common place for many years. Based on your experience, describe how reward systems work or do not work. Why or why not?
Reward systems are used for several purposes such as, to help an organization be more competitive, retain employees, and reduce turnover. Reward systems also help with motivation. If there is an effective reward system, employees will be excited to be at their job and to do the work, to maybe receive something in exchange. Because an employee is more motivated, their skills for the job improve as well.
Summary
This lesson was interesting, except I do have many more questions about merit pay for teachers. What about the special Ed teachers? What kind of pay do they get? They may get paid more than the “regular” teachers already, but special Ed students don’t score well on standardized testing like other students do. So where does that leave the special Ed teacher with his/her pay? Just because students can’t help their intelligence level, the teacher is having to pay for it? This makes no sense to me. Also, classes are usually split up from advanced students, average students, and the remedial classes. Teachers can’t help what kind of students they receive in their classroom for that year. From what I understand, a teacher who is teaching a class with nothing but advanced students who make all A’s and exceeds on all of their standardized testing, that teacher is going to get paid more than a teacher who is teaching remedial classes just because his or her students don’t perform well enough on the standardized testing as the advanced students. This isn’t right at all. I do not like this idea of merit pay. We have to have teachers in other classes besides the advanced classes. If merit pay were to become about, future educators would only want to go to school to specialize in a subject, to teach nothing but advanced elementary/middle/high school students who make nothing but A’s in school to receive the higher pay. We have to have teachers in other areas too. This isn’t fair to other teachers.
Also, in one of the articles provided for this lesson it mentions how with merit pay, new teachers could get paid just as much as a teacher who has been in the school system for years if their students test scores are high enough. In my opinion, this isn’t right. The teacher who has been there for many years EARNED their money, so the teacher who has just arrived shouldn’t be getting paid as much as the teacher with more experience, they should have to EARN that paycheck as well. I didn’t think teaching was about the money, but making a difference in young students’ lives, and in the world. If this was the case, merit pay shouldn’t even me a consideration.
Research Question
What is the teacher’s perception of merit pay?
Reference: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED533331.pdf
Research Analysis
In this article the author did research, plus surveys to get his/her results. Turns out, merit pay has been an ongoing battle in the school systems since the 1800s. Approximately 250 teachers in Indiana were invited to complete the survey, but only 42 did. Out of the 42 teachers, 25 of the teachers were not in schools that involved merit pay, but the remaining 17 was.
Overall, the majority of the participants strongly disagreed that merit pay was a bad idea in the school systems. Teachers argued that they work to the best of their abilities to teach their students every day. While in the midst of saying this, they also state that while teachers are seeking more teaching methods and additional pay, it does nothing for their students’ achievement.
Research Summary
I strongly agree with my research article. I believe that when teachers are seeking to teach better lessons, while trying to receive higher pay, it’s not doing anything to enhance their students’ achievement. Teachers to be more focused on how their students learn and ways to help them, instead of being fixated on how big their paycheck may be.