The Merits of Merit Pay for Teachers

The merits of merit pay for teachers should be discussed by experts on merit pay and pay for performance.  Politicians, parents and other interested parties all have a lot to say about the topic, but no one seems to care about the opinions of those with substantial experience in the subject.  Rather than simply listen passively to pundits whose sound bites resonate strongly but are weak in substance, why don’t we kick the subject around a bit here?

Here are some conditions generally considered necessary for the success of merit pay or performance-pay programs.

1. Performance objectives are defined, with clear output expectation standards communicated in advance.

2. Standards of performance are consistent among comparable jobs while still recognizing unique position circumstances and requirements.

3. The enterprise creates and communicates objective, valid and reliable performance measures so each employee can control their personal output measurement results.

4. Supervisors are trained in effective performance review and appraisal methods, so they can note individual output results in areas where differences are worthy of attention.

5. Supervisors accurately differentiate on the basis of validated performance and frankly but diplomatically communicate their evaluations to the subordinates.

6. Mutual trust exists between supervisors and subordinates.

7. Pay ranges are wide enough to permit significant pay differences among peers.

8. The organization has both sufficient money and adequate determination to award substantially larger pay increases to better performers.

9. Pay structures are externally competitive and internally equitable.

OK, now consider how difficult it is to accomplish any, much less all, of those prerequisite conditions in private industry where management has total control.  It is highly doubtful that most educational systems can do better than the private sector.  A quick review of those criteria will show that few schools can meet most of those demands.

Without the necessary environment to support merit pay, it cannot succeed.

Please realize that this is certainly not a comprehensive complete list of all requirements, but it happens to be a summary of the points I raised in an article with this exact same topic title over twenty-five (yes, 25) years ago.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Back then, I closed saying, “At present, the teaching environment lacks the right climate for merit pay.  Yet recognition of the steps necessary to properly reward merit in education will help bring the day closer when that ideal can be achieved.”

Being a perpetual optimist, I guess I’ll never learn.  Kick away!

E. James (Jim) Brennan is Senior Associate of ERI Economic Research Institute, the premier publisher of interactive pay and living-cost surveys. Semi-retired after over 40 years in HR corporate and consulting roles throughout the U.S. and Canada, he’s pretty much been there done that  (articles, books, speeches, seminars, radio/TV, advisory posts, in-trial expert witness stuff, etc.) and will express his opinion on almost anything.

Image: Creative Commons Photo: "national museum of american art and portrait gallery-52" by krossbow

Comments

[Paul Weatherhead]

Jim, Thanks for the provocative topic on merit pay for teachers. Teachers run in my family - my mother retired from the highly regarded Fairfax County, Virginia school system, and my wife is a 30-year high school teacher/college professor/College Board consultant/textbook author.

If there was a magic answer to merit pay for teachers, we'd love to see it implemented right away.

Interestingly, the US Secretary of Education has advocated merit pay for teachers. But saying it and putting it into play over the objections of the influential national teacher unions are two different things. (Did any merit pay principles show up in the recent teacher bailout bill? Not that I saw.)

There are so many challenges that local school districts face in developing merit pay for teachers ...
-- budgetary constraints
-- valid and reliable performance measures that can deal with the highly variable student mix over time, between classes, between schools, and so on
-- the credibility of subjective evaluations no matter how much training participants get in the process
-- transparency in public education that would expose teacher evaluations and/or pay differentiation

One of the attractive approaches I have seen is national teacher certification. There is already a highly credible organization that is actively performing these rigorous certifications. Problem with this approach is that it is very expensive and is highly dependent on a school district or state's willingness to fund the certification process, and then provide a meaningful stipend for those who pass.

But hey, if a proven teacher merit pay program is out there, I'm anxious to jump on that bandwagon.

Thank goodness it's still a profession that attracts people who have a sense of "noblesse oblige."

[E. James (Jim) Brennan]

Lots of people have advocated it. My original article stemmed from a NPR Conversations from Wingspread show where I appeared the day after AFT president Al Shanker, who had called for merit pay for teachers during his radio interview. When asked what I thought of the idea, I realized it was highly desirable but virtually impossible, given the status quo circumstances. All that is still true. We continue to face the same daunting challenge.