I have often noted that merit pay has been tried again and again for nearly a century. It never works and it never dies.
There is a materialist strain in American culture that is certain that everyone will respond to a cash reward.
Advocates claim that the chance to win extra money will make teachers work harder and produce higher test scores and even make the teaching profession more attractive.
When these expectations fall flat, the believers simply won’t accept the results.
Teachers don’t like merit pay because they don’t want a bonus for doing what they do without a bonus.
Teachers don’t want a reward dangled in front of them for raising test scores because it is inherently insulting, as if they aren’t already doing their best and needed that carrot in front of them to try harder.
Teachers want higher pay, but they don’t want to compete with one another for the annual prize. That destroys teamwork.
This post in the Shanker blog by Eleanor Fulbeck summarizes the state of research.
Advocates of merit pay say that it increases teacher retention, but Fulbeck points out the the record is uncertain at best.
This is worth reading.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Merit pay is intended, aside from providing a profit center to the Pearsons of the world, to entrench high stakes testing more deeply, which is then used as a lever for closing schools and displacing teachers.
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I once happily took a 20% paycut and an 80 minute commute to change jobs. I was motivated by an environment of greater academic integrity and higher general morale. Merit pay? Pffft. Cash incentives are the recourse of those who have nothing else to offer.
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Diane,
Thank you for your insights and efforts in addressing the many problems with proposed reforms. Merit pay does not work for teachers for many reasons. For those who would like to look at this topic in more read \”Merit Pay\” in the free online book, \”Education Under Attack,\” at rodclarken.wordpress.com/published-works/. An excerpt follows.
Pay-for-performance can work for people whose primary motivations are monetary. It may also work for those who do not need to work together in cooperation and collaboration to achieve a long-term goal whose sole aim is to benefit others, as teaching does.
For teachers who need to be motivated by higher ideals of truth, service and justice to be truly effective, such materialistic, base and selfish motives are counter-productive. It is understandable why and how these material incentives appeal to those making them, and why they assume that everyone else is similarly motivated; however, introducing such inducements into teaching will undermine the moral integrity and efficacy of teachers, attracting self-seekers and promoters and encouraging corruption, the quickest and easiest way to profit in this arrangement.
Pay teachers a respectable wage and accord them the respect, honor and status they deserve. This will attract the best and brightest in our society to become teachers and keep them in classrooms. If they are the best, they will do their best and will not need to be manipulated or cajoled by extra pay to do their jobs. Be fair. If their jobs are more demanding, then they should be paid according to the standards of justice. If they do not do their jobs adequately, they should also be treated with justice.
Find ways to fairly evaluate and compensate their work, but realize teaching is an extraordinary complex and challenging job. To imagine that superficial measures of quality—such as isolated standardized tests that are subject to many conflated and conflicting variables and influences—can fairly or accurately measure teacher success is not supported by common sense or science. If it is determined that teachers are not doing a satisfactory job, they should be fired, because our students and society should expect and deserve the very best in their teachers.
In our public schools, it is in the public’s interest and society’s duty and responsibility to pay teachers an honest, respectable and living wage. It is the right, wise and just thing to do so. When we do not operate with the principles of compassion, wisdom and justice, we have problems. When individuals, communities and institutions do not support education, we can expect problems. These problems will reverberate throughout the nation for years to come as individuals lose faith, communities fall apart, institutions fail, societies break down and civilizations collapse.
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Yup, once i’m eligible for merit pay I’ll bring out my really good lesson plans, until then, they’re staying in my desk!
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Diane, Isn’t the solution to merit pay quite simple? Offer a career ladder to our best teachers. They get paid more and rewarded and they invest their time and talent in working with others to improve instruction. Teachers and unions support this approach as legitimate and beneficial (high school department chairs, mentor teachers, etc.), and instead of awarding increased salary with nothing in return, schools get the added benefit of the best teachers’ talent being devoted in part to the improvement of all. Bill
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Merit pay existed well before the corporate interest in the ’80s / ’90s, the Governors’ attention in the ’90s, the Federal Intrusion in ’01, and the recent corporate takeover of politicians and state education. (Hopefully an unintended consequence of RTTT). Several school districts had “merit” pay plans in place in the ’70s and ’80s with at least two presumptions:
1) Motivate and provide incentives (not just monetary) for leadership development, innovation, action-research, and professional growth in areas of interest and school direction.
2) Distinguish compensation for those who “seem” (no data used then) to be teaching at higher levels of proficiency but mostly expertise. Early research was clear on the development of novice vs. expert professionals so in lieu of or complementing the traditional step schedule, raises for continued growth and expertise that gets results.
Sadly, the politicians and state education / corporations have co-opted the model as a fixed pay-for-learning-to-follow-scripts-that-get-results model while stripping the schools of creativity, innovation, and intrinsic motivation.
But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater (the way we have with just about everything else in education). Teachers are eager. They are on a mission. In spite of the rhetoric, they are not all about unions and raises, and clock-punching – the good ones just depend on the outspoken unions to protect them from unfair practices of the past. (Yes – it’s gone too far in counting minutes and pay-for-everything but there are millions of remarkable teachers in this for children and, yes, a fair wage, benefit, and protection). Teachers are motivated to continue learning and reaching every student – and those who pursue leadership and continued innovation and growth toward expertise should be compensated (again, not for sit-and-get credit workshops and poor online courses).
There was/is/can be great value (and return-on-investments for those who follow that) in “merit pay” but not the way the politicians and corporate quick-fixers are defining it.
It’s time to take it all back: curriculum, pedagogy, innovation, bona-fide authentic evaluation, minimal standardized testing and more local authentic assessment, and professional development.
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