Merit Pay

1092 Words3 Pages

Brevetti, M. (2014). Reevaluating narrow accountability in American schools: The need for collaborative effort in improving teaching performances. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 81(1), 32-35.
The author describes the warnings of researchers and teachers regarding the use of merit-pay systems as a key way to evaluate teaching performances and argues that schools should emphasize a shared responsibility among teachers, parents, and community. The author further claims that even though teachers should be held accountable for their impact on student achievement, the practice of basing merit pay on high-stakes testing undermines the essence and art of collaboration among teachers, parents, and community in schools. The research concludes that schools …show more content…

The author lists the following eight reasons for this view: (1) Very few people anywhere in the labour force are paid on the basis of measured outcomes, (2) No other professional group is paid based on a measured outcome, (3) Most teachers oppose such schemes, (4) Pay based on student achievement is highly likely to lead to displacement of other important education purposes and goals, (5) There is no consensus on what the measures of merit should be, (6) The measurement of merit in teaching inevitably involves a degree of error, (7) The details of merit pay schemes vary widely, yet these details have great impact on how such plans are received and their effects on teachers and schools, and (8) The evidence for merit pay for teachers is weak, and many schemes have been tried but do not last. The author concluded that merit pay is a new pay plans that can’t be summarily imposed on teachers and that teachers need to be part of the process of development, and they need to own the pay plan that emerges. This article reveals some critical problems that could develop during the implementation of merit pay. It also severs as valuable information for merit pay policy …show more content…

This research reveals that while many school districts in California have economic incentive policies targeted at teachers with specific skills or credentials, most incentive policies are focused more on teachers with rough proxies for "quality." Limited evidence was found that particularly "hard-to-staff" districts with high proportions of minority and poor students and those with low academic achievement-are more likely to implement economic incentives that target teachers with specific subject credentials and are less likely to focus their efforts on attracting and retaining "high-quality" teachers. The authors find it will be critical to consider other possible characteristics that explain how and why districts use incentives. The limitation of the research reveals that only California’s context is explored and that these districts might be implementing other sets of policies to recruit and retain teachers. The use of these incentive policies will be a fruitful avenue for future research to determine if districts' use of economic incentives succeeds in increasing teacher recruitment and retention, especially to high-need schools and

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