Merit Pay is a label that is used to describe the performance related pay for educators. Merit pay was designed to be an incentive for teachers to be able to utilize performance pay depending on the performance of their students. The foundation of merit pay relies on solely on the incentive strategies. The strategy is founded on the principle that people will respond with the correct response due to higher incentives. On March 24, 2011, it was implemented with teachers and their pay. Governor Rick Scott signed and approved, the Florida legislation. The Senate Bill 736 was created and set to be implemented. The legislation required that every school district in the state of Florida now abide to these laws by June 1, 2014. The districts were …show more content…
Through the research and deliberation I slowly am able to view both sides of the spectrum. For one teacher, I could clearly view how it would not be beneficial. For the second teacher, I can also see how it would be more than beneficial. Depending on the teachers perspective, experience and results is what will equal the negative or positive response towards the opinion of merit pay. As a teacher to be, the thought of merit pay seems unfair however, it is somewhat fair because it is based on the teachers willingness to preform well with her students. This being said, conducting by research it was amusing to discover that teachers from my generation were more likely to be satisfied with merit pay versus a teacher who has been teaching many years in the public school system. “Researchers regularly report that today's early career teachers are more interested in pay for performance than their veteran colleagues are (Public Agenda, 2009). They seek to combine classroom teaching with other roles — for example, as an instructional coach or data analyst. Currently, many districts are experimenting with bonuses for teachers whose students score well on standardized tests. But this additional pay is almost always tacked on to the traditional single-salary scale” (Johnson, Moore & Papay, 2010). Robert Vagi who is a professor and analyzer at the University of Arizona states that: “According to Springer (2009), two recent studies have assessed the effectiveness of value-added merit pay on student achievement in schools in New York and Nashville. Though proponents of merit pay hoped that the New York and Nashville initiatives might serve as models for future reform, neither resulted in higher test scores or increased teacher motivation. Pointing out shortcomings in the systems implementation, the authors of both studies expressed hope for the future
Teachers and theorists have played a huge role through out history. There are those that have dedicated their lives to learning and investing in tools and strategies to help children succeed and grow with their development. There are those that have created schools, programs and set standards for teachers that are even used in todays school systems. This gives teachers the opportunity to adapt to any personality and give that child the best care and education they deserve. With that being said, there is a lot of weight that can be on a teachers shoulders but people may often overlook these very important people. The pay may not be the best in this particular field, but that is not the reason they do what they do. This specific group loves children and love what they do. The reward for them is seeing that child succeed no matter how young or small they may be. These amazing folks are sometimes even labeled heroes for the impact they can really do in a young persons life. They are changing peoples lives with the investment they make everyday. With teachers investing in children's lives in the beginning with programs like Head Start and Pre-Kindergarten, America will have and has seen brilliant and successful people.
Taylor Mali, an American slam poet and teacher, wrote a poem titled, “What Teachers Make”. In this poem, he rhythmically tells about other professions criticizing teachers based on their choice of occupation. While teachers will never earn six figure incomes, they make a difference. Teachers dedicate their lives to leading, inspiring, and educating future generations, all while earning meager pay. Though teachers form foundation of education, their pay does not accurately represent their skills. Using merit pay systems will properly assess how much a teacher should be paid, based on their teaching ability.
Podgursky, Michael. The Single Salary for teachers in K-12 public schools. New York: Prentice Hall, 2002.
Prostik, J. (1996). ‘ History of Teacher Pay and Incentive Reforms’, Journal of School Leadership,6, 3,265-89.
For some individuals, a meritocratic system would be very helpful and fair in achieving goals and objectives.
Some locations in the United States are trying to improve their education by adding quality teachers. A major reason why there is an achievement gap in education is because there exist a gap in teachers as well. Research has shown that teacher quality counts. Some states are seeking ways to keep quality teachers and ways to attract them. In New York City, the schools will not hire teachers that are not certified. Also, New York and California are adding some sort of incentive in public schools, to attract quality teaching to minority schools. Sometimes school add annual bonus up to $10,000 for qualify teacher to work in public school, with low achieving schools. Also, many state provide some sort of tuition assistance for teacher, but of all of the states only seven target the candidates to commit to the lower achieving schools (Olsen, 2003).
There is no more critical role in our current society than that of a teacher’s. Teachers help shape the minds of the future. Tomorrow 's engineers, scientists, politicians, and educators are all greatly influenced by today 's Instructors. Without teachers society would not be anywhere near where it is now, and only a select few would have access to learning. Sadly however important teachers are in human civilization, they are still drastically understated, unrecognized and under paid. Although some people may argue that performance pay is good, performance/merit pay is bad because it will result in teachers doing much less personalizing of the curriculum, and spending that time doing only what things need to teach in order to keep their student’s
Kohanim, Jordan and Ashley Ulrich. "Teachers: No Merit to Merit Pay Arguments." Atlanta Journal-Constitution Website. 28 February 2010. Web. .16 November 2010
The majority of teachers get paid a middle class salary, live a middle class life and harldy ever get looked at as major influences to kids; however, just because a sports player plays a game like no other they could be famous, a millionaire, and looked at as a hero to people across the country or even worldwide. Even when off the field that phenomenal sports player might never do a thing for their fans they are hardly ever looked at negatively for not paying attention to their fans. A teachers job is to pay attention to each and everyone of their students they deal with students day by day and year by year compared to the sports player of having a ten year at most length career. Is it fair that two people born with a gift, one has the gift to play a game like no one else and the other has a gift of teaching.
When it comes to performance-related pay or in other words, merit pay, I believe that most people are familiar with this concept. This method of payment means that with more labor, better performance, and results, people can get a higher salary in return. It is very common in many industries, such as in sales or on production lines. However, whether it should be applied to the teaching profession is always a controversial issue. Some people think that it would be unfair for teachers, but others think that this can help increase competition, thereby improving the quality of teaching. These two completely opposite views both seem sensible. However, in my opinion, merit pay for teachers is necessary because it can improve teachers’ motivation,
Merit pay is a vehicle for employers recognizing individual performance and motivating employees to reach higher achievement. Competition is a natural human instinct and healthy competition compels employees to perform at their highest level. Employees must have clear, attainable goals and supervisors must provide continuous feedback, publicly praising employees to motivate performance. Additionally, employers that recognize and reward individuals for their exceptional performance in tangible ways, ultimately increase employee’s self-esteem and encourage them to maintain a high level of commitment to the organization. Employees are more apt to stay with a company when they feel that their hard work is appreciated and compensated. When employees are highly driven, it decreases absenteeism, tardiness, and results in a positive work attitude. In fact, employers use merit pay not only to retain highly motivated performance individuals, but also to attract new employees who are motivated by monetary rewards cultivating a productive workforce. Personally, I think merit pay plans are a great incentive if they are implemented fairly, equitable, and based on individual performance. Furthermore, I feel nothing demoralizes a high performing employee faster than knowing that all employees who contribute less to performance will receive the exact pay increase. If merit pay programs are instituted, they must ensure that
tro: Compensation for today’s average worker has always been a highly sensitive topic for any employer. Determining fair compensation can be an overbearing task, as there are many contributing factors that make up the general pay scale. When determining pay, a company must always consider the hourly amount, the benefits that may be offered, any incentives that could potentially be incurred and ensuring that their employees have an established work life balance. For an employer to be successful in determining compensation for their associate, they must remain grounded around 1 key principle. Employee compensation is determined by expertise, education and the daily duties performed by the employee.
Duke, Daniel L., ed. Incentive Pay and Career Ladders For Today's Teachers. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990. 42-241. Grand Rapids Community College Database . Web. 6 Apr. 2014. .
In any organization, sometimes, monetary schemes doesnot get people involve to pursue work in a certain way, rather it demoralize and threatens the self-esteem of employees. According to Meyer (1975), “the basis for most of the problems with merit pay plans is that most people think their own performance is above average”. The amount may ...