Under the influence of wrong-headed economists, Bill Gates has publicly stated that teachers should not be paid more for experience or education because such things do not raise test scores. This is really a terrible set of ideas. I have never met a teacher who said that experience doesn’t matter. Every teacher I know says that he or she tried to improve every year, and that they didn’t reach their stride until five to seven years in the classroom. As for education, I don’t know how a master’s degree affects test scores, but I would think someone who believes in education would want more education and would find it valuable to study subjects and the issues of education in greater depth. The “philosophy,” if you can call it that, that everything should be decided by test scores or some other metric, is essentially anti-intellectual and detrimental to the larger goals of education.
A reader sent me this email about how the education philosophy of Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation is affecting the rest of the world, and not for the better:
You recently wrote: “I am puzzled by their funding of ‘astroturf’ groups of young teachers who insist that they don’t want any job protections, don’t want to be rewarded for their experience (of which they have little) or for any additional degrees, and certainly don’t want to be represented by a collective bargaining unit.”
I have an anecdote that may interest you. A few months ago, I was teaching in Saudi Arabia. The head of the program showed a video clip to all the teachers, about seventy of us. In the short video, Mr. Gates said that teaching experience and graduate degrees were not important for teaching performance. The director said he agreed with Gates after showing the video. By the way, the director has far less teaching experience and is far less educated than myself and many of the other teachers. Not only that, I was hired just a few months previously based on part on my extensive classroom experience. I am no longer working for that organization. The direstor made it clear that day and later that highly-educated and experienced instructors were not welcome. I will be starting-hopefully-a new position soon.
Bottom-line: Mr. Gates’s approach to education has had a pernicious impact both in the USA and abroad.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If Bill Gates doesn’t think advanced degrees and experience matter, I am wondering who he would choose to do his open heart surgery?
Every time I hear that additional education and experience don’t matter in teaching I think that maybe we should have Doctors For America where in 6 weeks one can become a physician.
I am guessing those doctors would “practice” on other people than those at the top who insist on the most experienced and the most qualified.
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Wouldn’t you love to see that video?
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No, I don’t want my head to explode!
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Why does it matter what he thinks…besides his money, where is his expertise in teaching and learning? Personally, I don’t give a hoot what he thinks. Isn’ t the recent news that his method of management was or is a disaster for Microsoft in terms of ingenuity? Maybe he should just go back to work everyday and butt out. The guy with the most money isn’t necessarily the smartest…maybe the most arrogant.
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Gates seems to have gone to schools where he enjoyed the benefits of experienced teachers with advanced degrees. I am sure his own children have experienced, highly credentialed teachers as well.
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When posting about others’ beliefs, it would be nice to see their original quote in context or some opportunity for them to respond. Sometimes, this public dialog veers from an important discussion with different points of view to name calling.
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To whom are you referring?
Seems like your statement neatly wraps itself around itself.
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People like Gates are convinced that since education, real education, has little or nothing to do with getting scores up, poor kids don’t need an education. Since what happens in schools is valuable only insofar as it can be measured in test scores, the only thing that matters is what gets test scores up. So the problem for him is how to do that most efficiently, and his solution is akin to that of the factory farmer who force feeds his pigs and cows to get their weight up as quickly and cheaply as possible. Teachers with wisdom and experience need not apply at the poor-kid schools he thinks we need. That kind of thing is wasted on poor kids. Such schools require only minimally trained technicians willing to work longer hours for less who will pull the lever that will inject the information that will get these kids to pass the next test.
Would he send his own kids to such a school? Of course not, but his kids aren’t poor, so they don’t have to get their test scores up. In the long-run that’s what Gates-reform is all about: a rich, humanistic education for affluent kids in private schools, and test mills for poor kids in publicly funded charters. In his own misguided, patronizing way, I’m sure he’s sincere when he says he’s just trying to help. Rich people always think they know best what poor people need.
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I think you hit the nail on the head. Why do the rich people never ask why would they have any say about what poor people need in the first place?
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Gates sees education as another money-making opportunity. His “foundation” shouldn’t even be tax exempt because at bottom it is a POLITICAL outfit.
Remind yourself how Gates got his money. His goal is to turn all schools into online “academies” using software he and his ilk develop.
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Anthony Cody just put up my guest blog post to that effect, Susan.
Here it is:
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/07/the_gates_foundations_educatio.html
Everybody, please tweet it, and continue the conversation.
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Here is an interesting speech from Bill Gates on “rushing” in new teacher evaluation systems and the harms they can cause.
http://bobsidlethoughtsandmusings.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/bill-gates-dont-rush-teacher-evaluations-do-it-right/
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Sounds like Bill Gates probably thinks highly of Merit Pay schemes. Unfortunately I think we are going to have to ride the storm out for a while in Wisconsin as Scott Walker has put things in place to “pay for performance” based on test scores. In the meantime I’ve been a tryin’ to beat them at their own game (which they don’t like btw). These “corporatizers” really like to sell the choice idea as we all know. I’m trying to get my State Rep. Samantha Kerkman (R), who voted along with the other republicans to end collective bargaining rights and for Scott Walker’s education reform bill, to introduce some choice to our education system if we end up going the merit pay route. I propose that schools in Wisconsin be mandated to provide a 2 tiered pay scale system; one based on merit pay tied to performance on mandated tests and one based on experience and education, you know the status quo way. The catch being that the merit pay system would be substantially higher,,,maybe 10,000 more than the status quo way. However, the status quo teachers would be free from all required standardized testing and would have minimal govt meddling. Of course teachers would be allowed to choose which tier they would like to “volunteer” for and parents would also get to choose which system to put their kids in. At the end of the day we would have choice, accountability, “rewarding” the best teachers by paying them more to raise test scores, etc. We would also know that the status quo teacher at least wasn’t greedy. I’m usually looked at like I’m from outer space when I bring it up. So, then I suggest another radical idea: If you can motivate teachers to teach “better” by rewarding them with more money when they improve test scores, then it would tend to reason that learners (students) would also be motivated by money. So, I ask “why not cut out the middle man”? Isn’t that another basic business model to save money? Why not just pay the kids to raise their test scores? Or perhaps we could combine the two ideas and make this a 3rd choice. Parents could choose from one of the three: 1. teachers compete for big money to raise test scores 2. Teachers get paid mediocre money but the kids compete for big money for raising their own scores 3. Teachers get paid low money but are freed from all testing and govt meddling is minimized. I know where my 5 year old is going; that’s for sure!
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If Gates doesn’t think that, on average, experience and effectiveness are related, he is wandering in circles around the desert. Somebody please give him some water.
At the level of the individual teacher though experience does not always equal effectiveness.
Assuming there was a fair way to measure teacher effectiveness – and I’m not assuming that exists or that there is even a consensus on that point – I would want the most effective teachers getting the greatest rewards.
By the way, one thing I am sure of is that, under any fair measure of effectiveness, if you looked at the most effective group of teachers, there would be a few 1st- and 2nd-year teachers in there – but they would be very, very scarce. If you looked at the least effective group of teachers, there would be a few 20-30+-year veterans in there – but again very, very scarce.
If teachers were paid based on their effectiveness, most of the highest paid teachers would be very experienced.
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If you are suggesting that “effective”=higher test scores, there is no evidence to support this.
The down side of using test scores this way is very down.
Narrowing of the curriculum, testing everything that is taught-including the arts and PE
Cheating
Gaming the system
Teaching to the test.
Not good education.
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I’m not presupposing any definition of teacher effectiveness. Just saying that any good measures of effectiveness would end up rewarding experienced teachers more than inexperienced teachers because, on average, experienced teachers are more effective despite what Gates has claimed.
If there were a group of fair effectiveness measures, we could do away with rewards that are ONLY based on seniority or ONLY on advanced degrees earned because the most effective teachers would receive the most rewards and the majority of those effective teachers would be teachers with seniority.
With advanced degrees earned, teachers would pursue these to the extent they increased their effectiveness and, by increasing effectiveness, they would be appropriately rewarded. If an advanced degree did not increase a teacher’s effectiveness, there would be no reward.
The struggle is figuring out a fair approach to gauging teacher effectiveness.
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