Things Not to Say to a Teacher About Merit Pay

I'm sure many of you have heard about "merit pay" or "performance pay" at some point, either on the news, from an educator, or in passing. The term has garnered both negative and positive reactions from the masses, but whether or not merit pay actually works doesn't negate the fact that many teachers HATE the idea of it. If you're unsure what merit pay is, since it has a variety of names used across the country, I dug up a nice little definition for us:

Merit Pay - a raise or deduction in pay based on specifications of performance set by the employer; often makes use of meetings and observations to determine work performance

Part of the newest fad in "reforming" education, some state governments (and some upcoming presidential candidates - take a look) are implementing merit pay plans for their teachers. These plans generally place the teacher's pay, and thereby the teacher's reputation, almost solely on their students' assessments and grades. Basically, if your class is all making benchmark, you get a raise! Isn't that exciting?!?

John Green showing how excited we are!!!

Teachers are not excited. I am not excited. My mom, who is a second grade teacher, is not excited. Along with the idea that we could potentially earn raises, we could also face CUTS in pay due to underperforming students. We could potentially lose our jobs if it happens too often. Teachers already make a low salary, so the mere thought of making even less is unnerving. I don't even have my teacher certification yet, and this is what my state's legislators are contemplating for my future career.

When I try to justify WHY this is even being considered as an option, I think - in theory - merit pay is meant to meet a variety of unrealistic goals; it is meant to filter out poor teachers, promote competition among coworkers, and (potentially) raise student scores.

Thank you, Batman. A week might be a bit much, but I pretty much agree. Here's a nice page that lists some excellent points about the reality of merit pay and how it doesn't really work. The author states his points much better than I think I could, and he's spot on with all of them.

Across the country, a severe loss in teachers is occurring, and merit pay is one of the many on the list of reasons why. We don't get recognition as professionals (and we ARE professionals). We barely make enough to support a small family. Our creativity as educators gets pushed aside to make room for extra testing. National scores are under par, and everyone is quick to blame the teachers. UGH. Even if I plug my ears and sing, "la la la la la," merit pay exists, and is a real possibility for my future as an educator. Because of this, I absolutely cannot STAND to talk to people who support it, because I hear some of the following things:

1) It'll get rid of all the bad teachers! You'll be safe.

Yeah, okay, it'll do that. You want to know what else it'll do? Get rid of some GOOD teachers. I'm most definitely not "safe."

Remember what I said everything is based on? Student scores. Now, if my students' scores were singularly dependent on my skill as a teacher, I would simply work my hardest and make it rain with all my merit bonuses, but the reality is that each student is an individual. There are just going to be some kids who will not understand what I'm trying to teach them, whether it be from their personal development, their maturity, a learning disability or other exceptionality, or simply their refusal to learn. Those things are OUT. OF. THE. TEACHER'S. CONTROL. Why am I to be paid based on something I have little say in?

I can work my hardest to get Sally's scores up, but if she simply refuses to write her paper or read an assigned novel, there's not much I can do about it. Then I'm going to get a loss in pay because she brings down my class's average for the grading period because she failed her assignments. Then she does poorly on the [insert standardized test here] and I get another cut in pay.

The next year, when Sally is gone, I get Jason. Jason has a learning disability, and his IEP (individualized education program) states that he is to take the same assignments the other students take. I try my hardest to give him extra assistance in preparation for the class's major assignments. He fails them and lowers the class average. I get ANOTHER cut in pay. He takes his standardized tests, and lowers my class's scores there.

At the end of the year, I get fired due to my seemingly poor performance as a teacher. Thanks, merit pay.

2) It'll increase competition among teachers!

Thanks. This is exactly what we need. Instead of working to make lesson plans geared directly to my students in an attempt to help them learn, I'm going to be hyper-conscious of what lesson Mr. Smith is doing on the same topic, and I'll be working to make it bigger and better and more aligned to the standards than his! AND MY STUDENTS WILL OUT-TEST HIS STUDENTS BECAUSE I AM SUPER TEACHER! AND I'LL GET A RAISE, TOO!!!

Do you see where I'm going with this? Eventually teachers will be focused 100% on scores. We will effectively teach to the test. What's worse is that we won't have our eyes on the scores because we want our students to succeed, we'll be looking at them because we want more money.

Let's say that the merit pay program you're in doesn't give pay cuts, just bonuses. You design a great unit on parts of speech, and your students perform fairly well on their summative assessments. Despite that, Mr. Smith's class performed just a little bit better on their parts of speech assessments, so he gets a nice bonus. Let's say his class out performs yours consistently, and he keeps raking in merit bonuses while you're stuck making the base salary - despite your hard work.

Wouldn't that be overwhelmingly depressing? I'd get burnt out so fast, and probably want to quit and get a new job.

3) Teachers SHOULD be held responsible for their performance! And you think we're NOT? Really? Seriously?

We get observed on a regular basis (where I am it's 2-3 times a year, every year) and given reports on our performance. If we're underperforming, county officials come in and observe us, and if we continue to underperform, we can be fired. Why in the WORLD does this need to extend to what we're paid? In education world, performance = student success. There's simply no other way to measure it. Everyone pushes data, data, data, (and not even the character from Star Trek: TNG, but frustrating numbers and patterns) but data only needs to be part of the equation. There are a TON of other variables at work, but no one really wants to bother with them.

Additionally, do YOU want YOUR pay to be based on YOUR job performance? No? I didn't think so.

Let's pretend doctors are paid based on their performance, and their variable of success is the number of healthy patients they have. Your elderly father just moved from his out-of-state home to a nursing home where you live, and needs a new general practitioner. BUT your dad has arthritis, high blood pressure, and replacement heart valves. Do you honestly think your dear old dad will find a doctor who will take him as a new patient if he's at such high risk of a(n additional) medical problem?

NO. NOT IF THE DOCTOR WOULD EARN LESS BECAUSE OF YOUR DAD.

Unlike doctors who can refuse new patients, teachers cannot refuse a student into their classrooms. We have absolutely no choice in whether or not we can accept a child who we know will cost us money. That's the difference between merit pay for teachers and doctors, and that's why legislators are willing to push this asinine plan in our direction.

4) There are SO MANY teachers who just sit in their room and do NOTHING. They need incentive.
There are not "SO MANY" who do nothing. There are some, but few. Most of us are there because we want to be, and don't need some sort of incentive to do our best. We already get bad pay for the amount of work we do, and we're still here.

Please enjoy Matt Damon smashing your ignorant ideals (Warning: there're some not school appropriate words):


All in all, I've learned that anyone who says these things simply doesn't understand what it means to be an educator, and doesn't understand what they're really saying when they support merit pay. Try to take pity on them at first, smile at them and calmly explain the reality of things as if they were a student in your classroom. If they still refuse to believe what you're saying, show them this: