Sound Politics: C'mon. Teachers are professionals.

September 27, 2004

C'mon. Teachers are professionals.

I was paired with a former school principal to offer a point-counterpoint on Initiative 884 (the billion-dollar education tax increase) at a Seattle-area PTA meeting tonight.

During Q&A the issue of "merit pay" for teachers came up, and the former principal spoke fervently against it. His point was: "Merit pay causes teachers to fight with each other, and teachers are a team. We don't want that kind of strife breaking up the team."

With all due respect, teachers are (or should be) intelligent, independent professionals, not children. Professionals understand the correlation between performance and compensation.

Excellent teachers have nothing to fear and everything to gain from a flexible salary model. Poor teachers benefit from an inflexible model that says everyone should be paid the same no matter how they do their jobs.

Which kind of teachers do we want in our children's classrooms?

Posted by Marsha Richards at September 27, 2004 09:07 PM | Email This

Comments

1. Marsha;

a) That lecture going to be on TVW?

b) Speaking of the merit-pay debate, check this out:

"It's Marilyn Jipson's first year teaching band at Concrete High School — her first time in 17 years to pick up a sheet of music, in fact — and she's struggling to understand band language."
(http://www.skagitvalleyherald.com/articles/2004/09/27/news/news01.txt)

If I hadn't just posted an anti-Gregoire column I want folks to read, I'd use my Google toolbar "BlogThis!" button on it!

c) I know you do good work! Keep it up!

Posted by: Josef on September 27, 2004 09:16 PM

2. I disagree, Marsha...

Teachers, especially at the same grade level, should be working together as a team to enhance education for all the students, not just the ones in their classroom.

It's like the difference between having salespeople compete against each other for one bonus/prize or setting a goal/benchmark for the whole team to reach in order to earn bonuses for everyone (even if they're lower). Certainly there are pluses and minuses to both approaches, but I prefer teamwork.

I think the issue isn't "merit" pay, it's tenure. Why is it so damned difficult to get rid of bad teachers? Or older teachers who refuse to adapt to new technologies and learning techniques? We should do away with tenure at ALL levels of education, and encourage renewable contracts, perhaps every five years.

Tie renewal to demonstrated work achievements, keeping skills current, etc. much as IT professionals are expected to.

Posted by: Mickymse on September 28, 2004 01:29 PM

3. Merit pay means you get paid more for doing a good job. Doing a good job may include helping other teachers and being a leader.

A straightforward solution would be for the funds allocated to teacher raises, be put into a bonus pool. That bonus pool is paid out based on merit. No decrease in teacher pay, no increase in costs, just a seed of a merit system.

Posted by: mikeki on September 28, 2004 04:25 PM

4. Mickymse: I agree that good teaching requires an awareness of other classrooms and subjects. In Washington schools, for example, students in the 4th, 7th and 10th grades must take the WASL. That doesn't mean a 5th grade teacher can ignore that fact just because she isn't directly tied to the testing year.

A good K-12 system recognizes the need for coherent sequence between grades, and one would hope the definition of a "good teacher" would also recognize that fact. Merit pay would be based on successfully achieving your part in that process.

This promotes the right kind of teamwork without the host of new problems that come with a socialized performance pay system that ignores human nature and the benefits of healthy competition.

Mikeki: You made that point as well. Good point.

Posted by: Marsha Richards on September 28, 2004 05:42 PM