Along with all the schemes for fixing the economy, President Obama (along with his secretary of education) has been out selling his plans for improving education in this country.
And one piece of the proposal that seems to be getting a lot of attention – and which is possibly the worst of a bad bunch – is merit pay for teachers.
While there are many reasons to hate this idea, one in particular stands out for me.
Merit pay for individual teachers further cements in place the concept that teachers work alone in a classroom, that they and they alone are responsible for student learning.
That makes absolutely no sense given what actually happens here in the real world.
Look around any successful school and you’ll find lots of great teachers.
You’ll also find a principal who understands what great instruction looks like and does everything they can to make sure they have all the tools necessary to make it happen.
Very likely that school also has many other excellent staff members – librarian, department chairs, counselors – plus strong parental support and any number of other important factors that make up the complicated process of educating children.
I’ve ranted about this many times before but it’s still true that the story of the solitary teacher who single-handedly defies the odds and brings their kids to incredible academic success is a Hollywood myth.
If you’re going to pay bonuses, they should go to teams of educators, to all the people in a school who make large contributions to improved student learning.
But this doesn’t mean I don’t believe in differentiated pay.
Any educator who voluntarily works in low income neighborhoods, who works with special needs children, who are in high demand fields, should be paid more.
Heck, I think every Kindergarten teacher deserves an automatic 10% increase. :-)
However, in the end teacher pay is like the many other pieces of the puzzle that make up educating children: there is no simple solution that fits into a one sentence talking point.