Does merit pay work?
Has any teacher worked in a school system where merit pay was effective for more than 3 years? If you worked in teaching job where merit pay was an option did you see a change in the teacher moral after it was implemented? Better or worse?
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The biggest problem with merit pay is the playing field is rarely even. I have seen that the best teachers frequently get the hardest students. They are stuck with the ones who have struggled for years, have parents who could not care less about education, are frequently truant, etc. Teachers working in schools in the upper middle class have a big cultural advantage over the ones who are teaching kids from families where education is not important.
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I have never worked in a merit system but have always wondered about a few things. i hope any posters who have worked can address a few things..
how does the school pass out gifted classes.
teachers who choose to work with remedial classes.. are they up for merit pay?
how does the school deal with language learners in the system?
How do you measure special education merit?
Is it simply test scores? who gets the credit in a secondary system where the child has 6 or 7 teachers?
Do art, music and physical education teachers qualify for merit? how? what criteria is used in your system?
how does administration affect merit pay?
yes, it does seem like alot of questions, but I really am curious.
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The merit pay system works in private and parochial schools where there is no such thing as tenure and contracts are only from year to year. Under those circumstances most teachers become motivated and stay that way.
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Yes, all it does is bring down moral, and make the teachers dislike and be suspicious of each other.
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