MERIT PAY, BAD IDEA

An experienced teacher's view on the system.

 

 

The biggest and most intractable problem with our education system is the shocking naiveté of our decision makers.  When your entire philosophy for educational reform is structured on ideas that have no real basis in reality, the most assured outcome is one of frustration and failure. There is no doubt there are teachers in classrooms today that has no business being there.  This fact holds true for all professions.  Incompetence will never be entirely eliminated for the simple reason there is a certain percentage of incompetent people at every level of every institution, including the people whose job it is to root out incompetence. 

 

One truth I discovered during my teaching career was that location was the most important factor in deciding how good a teacher was considered to be.  If you worked in an affluent upscale neighborhood with highly educated parents and motivated students you were considered a good teacher because your students did well on standardized testing.  However, if you took the same teacher and place him or her in a poor and struggling neighborhood you were a bad teacher because your students did poorly on standardized tests.  How can that be?  You have the same teacher, who like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, changes from being a good teacher to a bad teacher simply by changing location.  What an odd metamorphosis.

 

One of the many problems created by this example of human alchemy is the destruction of incentive.  What is to motivate a “good” teacher to move from a school where he or she is respected and congratulated to a school where he or she magically transforms into a “bad” teacher who is disrespected and considered professionally substandard?  The other side of the coin is the “bad” teacher in the low performing school who wants to become a “good” teacher.  The best way to bring about this conversion is simply do everything possible to be transferred to the school where the “good” teachers are, and miraculously be reborn into a “good” teacher.  The only fear at this point would be the threat of once again being transferred to a low performing school and devolve into a “bad” teacher once again.

 

One of the less brilliant plans considered by our ill-informed, out of touch decision makers is “performance pay.”  Such an oxymoronic plan works great for the “good” teachers at high performing schools.  What a bonus, not only do you get accolades for having your students, who have every advantage our society has to offer, excelling at every level of their testing, but you get more money for it too!  Wow, I sure would like to work at a school like that!  Oh, that’s right I forgot about the “bad” teachers at the low-performing schools, where there are fights on the playground every day, where you can’t tell the parents that Johnny has been bad today for fear they will beat poor Johnny, where there are no pencils or books at home, where Johnny is never the same “Johnny” twice because all the “Johnnies” in your class are constantly moving in and out of your school, where at open house or conference time very few of the parents show up, where many of the students are malnourished and neglected,  where to have a father at home is an oddity, where the “bad teachers” are discouraged because no one seems to appreciate how difficult the job is,  and now the brain trust at the top of the food chain wants to pay the “good” teachers at the high-performing schools more.  What to do, what to do?  I believe the best solution is the one I considered before, do your very best to go to a high-performing school, become a “good” teacher, and on top of all that get paid more!

 

What happens in the low-performing schools, pretty much what always happens.  The truly inferior teachers are able to hide out because no one is looking (very little parent involvement to keep the school honest and the overworked principal is just happy the teacher showed up). A few truly dedicated teachers struggle on, and the young new teachers do the best they can until they are able to transfer out.

 

So what is the solution?  Why not pay teachers more that are in difficult teaching environments?  Instead of having teachers flowing away from schools that have shown a history of low achievement why not pay them more?  Why have a system that encourages teachers to flock to high performing schools when the need is in low-performing schools?  I have often heard it said, half jokingly, that students at high-achieving schools would do well in spite of having “good” teachers or “bad.”  The same cannot be said for low-achieving schools.

 

Teaching is not an easy job.  Unfortunately, everyone who has gone to school as a student is under the impression that they are experts in education simply because they went to school.  If some of these so called experts had an opportunity to actually teach, especially in a difficult teaching environment, their perspective would quickly change.  The classroom setting has become so stressful and unrewarding that many teachers drop out in the first few years. One-third of new teachers drop out after three years and after five years almost half the new teachers have moved on.  An outstanding teacher is a rare commodity only attained by a select group of naturally gifted people.  There are not enough of these individuals to fulfill the need in this country, especially with the deteriorating status that teachers now hold. The teacher of the year event and other band-aids are put on our profession to try to stop the bleeding, it is not working.  What is needed are good teachers and not good because of the nature of their student body, but good because they are able to facilitate student learning.  To get good teachers you need to pay them well, give them the authority to truly manage their classrooms, and get as much of the politics out of the schools as possible. (I realize that the school board job is a stepping stone job into the world of politics, so to get politics completely out of the classroom is never going to happen.)

 

A case in point demonstrating the destructiveness of politics in schools occurred when the governor of California mandated that all 8^th graders would achieve a certain level of ability in algebra.  There was no input from the teachers.  The decision seems to be based on the premise that, “if you build it they will come.”  Just by mandating it, algebra will flourish in the minds of every 8^th grader in California.  I wonder what the teachers that teach algebra think of this plan that inexplicably popped into this once body builder, once an actor, presently politician’s mind?  From what I have seen so far, this is an example of one more misguided decision made by an amateur educator, that gives one more student a reason for dropping out of school.

 

Why are we so averse to using some of the ideas that have proved successful in other countries?  Is it glimmerings of the “Ugly American Syndrome” often exhibited by our kind in other parts of the world?  Is our over inflated ego getting in the way of making choices that will best benefit our students?  We have no reason to gloat.  American students are not what you could call leading the pack when it is compared to other developed countries. 

 

So since we are doing such a bad job in underachieving schools let us come up with something else.  Let us call them “Charter Schools.”  Let us go to underachieving schools and bleed off the students that really want to learn.  Let us get the students whose parents are concerned and involved in their child’s education, and are willing to take the time to fill out the application, to get their child to a place less conveniently located than their neighborhood school, that are willing to do some volunteer work at the school.  Oh yes one more thing, if the student has a discipline problem or is in some way not fit for charter school rules, standards, and regulations, we always have the option of not accepting them, or once accepted sending them back to the regular public school if they prove not to be suitable for charter schools. Public schools must take all comers.

 

Many educators have branched out into other areas of education outside of the classroom.  The reasons for this exodus are numerous.  Of course the most obvious reason is to increase their salary; however, I have found that if you dig a little deeper one common reason for escaping from the classroom is because the classroom teaching experience is not as satisfying as it once was and has become much more controlled by forces outside the walls of the classroom.  The teacher is being held more and more accountable with less and less authority to decide what is best for their students. Teachers are wary of decision makers starting with their immediate supervisor all the way up through state and federal government, with good reason.  The example concerning “merit pay” is a prime instance of a half thought out decision, conceived by people with little or no actual classroom experience, and then moved down the chain of command, eventually hitting where the rubber meets the road: the classroom.  Many if not most of the people in the lower administrative positions would like to eventually move up through the ranks to the higher positions, ever farther from the actual classroom.  I am talking about good people with the desire to excel.  The reality is you don’t excel by being a revolutionary in the world of public education. Being a team player is a better game plan for career advancement.  As a result, stupid ideas are passed down with no one willing to say, “the emperor has no clothes,” and possibly endanger their own career advancement.

 

None of the major issues of our day will be resolved until decision makers make decisions based on reality, not fantasy.  Decisions need to be based on the understanding of who will be the one to implement them.  If teachers are told to carry out the mandates of poorly conceived decisions then an educational guerilla war ensues with resistance from teachers, who are masters at giving lip service to the “party line” then doing what they think is best for their students.  To get the most out of educated employees, solutions need to be directed at actual situations on the ground, not how they are perceived to be from afar.  I am not at all confident in today’s polarized political environment that many decisions will be coming down based on the actual circumstances in today’s schools. It is discouraging listening to the mindless rants of fringe political elements.  Isn’t the main goal of education to teach people how to think: critical, rational, logical thinking?  Where did these decision makers go to school?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[Zeek4]

I know its too long. It was a venting session after listening to some dimwit on the news. I'm out of the game now, but I still get pissed off.

[Ed Hart]

my god, a thinking man! shoot him!

[Mark]

Thoroughly enjoyed this write, Zeke. i concur in your conclusions. It is reprehensible what politics and misappropriated budgeting have allowed to happen to America's schools, America's youth, and by inference, to America! Your voice is well-heard, and we can but hope for progress in the future, to rectify this sinkhole we seem to be in!

[B MacGregor]

Ok then... wow, quite a bone to chew on.

First, I'm in the choir behind you. Keep preaching. It's thee most important sermon (besides care of the planet) that we can deliver. We have to recognize, reward, and DEMAND the best from teachers. It is critical for all of us to have our eductaional institution strong--stronger than all other institutions because we rely on it the most.

Second, as far as writing. It read like a good vent, which is ok--you probably need to vent. And that's what readers do best, we listen. However, if you want to sell readers, then suggest breaking it into smaller and smarter pieces. For example, twist the structure of the writing around. Kind of like what you do in your poem about the river and rocks. Use structure to help sell your point. You have passion, that's the hardest thing to create.

Keep preaching.

[Jim]

Good article. I agree that the lack of basic critical thinking skills many people display when they talk about education is downright frightening. So many "educated" people just don't seem to understand one of the most basic principles of statistics: "Correlation is not causation." It's like when private liberal arts colleges brag that ninety-some percent of their students graduate in four years. Well, yeah, if you only accept 18-year-old valedictorians who aren't married, don't have kids, and don't have to work, then yeah--surprise, surprise-- they're all going to graduate in four years. They would have graduated in four years if they had gone to a public university, they would have graduated in four years if they had gone to a community college for two years and then transferred, they would have graduated in four years no matter what. There's nothing magical about the private school that makes students graduate sooner. And then people complain that it takes students too long to get through community college, like it's the community college's fault. Those students have jobs and families (and, yes, they may not have the best of academic backgrounds). That's why it takes them so long, not the type of college they attend.

[roarke]

A great piece. We need to talk. This piece is a manifesto to the total failure of the educational system. There are so many spotlight problems and your piece covers many that no one wants to look at it or be responsible for it. Zeek you could make about a dozen articles from just this one. Simplify, clarify, magnify but don't over load. I can digest this piece because it speaks to all my own personal observations, conclusions and suggestions for the educational system. Responsibility, accountability, empowerment are all lost in the system. The casualties are first the students of all walks of life and then second, the future.
I have many ideas on how to change the system and it can only be enacted and changed by the individuals, not by the system.

This is a strong piece. Well informed. Specific and inspiring. I encourage all to read this piece.