The concept of performance-based pay has been around in some industries for decades, and teaching is no exception. Many school systems offer bonuses to teachers based on a wide variety of performance criteria. These may include student grade averages, test scores, or even the number of hours a teacher works beyond the standard work day.
The theory behind performance-based pay is that teachers who are paid based on their performance will have more incentive to perform better. On the other hand, teachers who are paid based solely on their years of experience and education, can essentially do nothing to help students excel, but still walk away with sizable paychecks. A new teacher with fresh ideas and a strong commitment to helping children may still receive the minimum salary even if his or her students are successful, whereas a teacher with seniority who has lost the desire to teach can do little to nothing and still collect a bigger check.
The intentions behind performance-based pay are good, but the actual implementation of it is inherently flawed. There is no way to fairly pay teachers based on their performance, and the evidence from previous attempts strongly suggests that performance-based pay does not improve student success, which is the ultimate goal.
Measurable Performance
When performance is measurable, it is easy to pay someone accordingly. As a writer, for example, I am sometimes paid per article, per word, or even based on the percentage of advertising revenue my articles generate. Similarly, a factory worker might get paid for the number of devices assembled within a month, and a sales associate may receive a bonus for a larger amount of successful sales transactions.
All of these examples produce quantitative data that employers can aggregate and use to devise a performance-based pay system. In order to pay teachers based on their performance, schools would need to measure student success. Students, after all, are the customers of education. Many stores conduct surveys on customer satisfaction, but student satisfaction with teachers is not always based on academics.
Moreover, there has always been a debate about how reliable standardized tests are in measuring student knowledge. A teacher could teach to the test and make sure students pass it, but those students might not be more knowledgeable in the end than students who failed it. Grades present a similar problem, since a teacher could easily award students higher grades or give easier assessments simply to get paid more.
While a school administration could combine all of these factors: grades, test scores, and student satisfaction, the final data would still not be an accurate gauge in determining how much of the student success is actually the direct result of a teacher’s performance. This is because every student is not the same. Unlike the devices that the factory worker constructs, some students come to class already prepared and with a high level of knowledge. Others may come empty-handed and with blank slates. A teacher who has more well-prepared students may easily get better results and even better student satisfaction without actually performing better than a teacher who has unprepared students.
Ready, Set, Teach!
Most professions with performance-based pay are very competitive. Those sales associates who race each other to be “employee of the month” may be bitter rivals. This type of competition is neither productive for education nor helpful for students. Teaching should be a cooperative venture, and the old proverb that says it takes a village to raise a child is undoubtedly true.
In that regard, performance-based pay could also raise ethical concerns. For example, if one of the criteria for paying teachers more is based on their level of involvement in students’ lives beyond academics, some teachers may simply be better at showing off their achievements. The teacher with the least amount of humility who takes every opportunity at self-promotion may get paid more than a teacher who actually does better work.
The Real Problem
Before schools can find a real solution to improving teacher performance, they need to realize what the real problem is. Teachers who perform poorly are usually well known in a school. With all of the qualitative evaluations, observations, and reports that administrations already do, most teachers who need to improve have already been identified. Their actions are usually blatant, sometimes even illegal, but schools often still will not fire them. The real problem is that when they fail to improve or do not even make an effort, most schools still keep them or shuffle them around to other schools within the same district.
The heart of the issue is the poor performance of students in schools. In most cases, the problem is not the teachers but rather the system as a whole. Teachers who are paid comfortable salaries, have smaller classrooms, and are given the resources and good working conditions they need will perform better.
The majority of teachers have a strong commitment to education. Otherwise, they would not do it. These teachers do not need extra financial motivation to help children. If anything, they only need financial security, good benefits, and less money-related stress so that they can do their jobs and not have to worry about their family’s well-being. The reward for teachers who want to teach and strive to become better teachers is that they should be allowed to continue teaching. Those who do not need to find other professions.
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