The Surprising Truth: Does Merit Pay Encourage Motivation for Better Teaching?

There is an ideological belief that merit pay will do for the teaching profession what the bell did for Pavlov's salivating dog.  Teachers would dance remarkably better if the music was set to the tune of more money.

Of course, teachers should be compensated fairly for their education, skills, experience, wisdom and down-right hard work.  However, what is wrong with the thought that teachers should be incentivized?  Diane Ravitch writes:

Note that they assume that most people—in this case, teachers—are lazy and need a promise of dollars to be incentivized to get higher scores for their students. It never seems to occur to them that many people are doing their best (think people who play sports, always striving to do their best without any expectation of payment) and continue to do so because of intrinsic rewards or because of an innate desire to serve others. Teachers should certainly be well compensated, but not many enter the classroom with money as their primary motivation.

Many would argue that incentives are the way businesses are run and the same model would be beneficial to the ways schools should be run.  Professor Bruce Baker brings up a great point, here:

If rating teachers based on standardized test scores was such a brilliant revelation for improving the quality of the teacher workforce, if getting rid of tenure and firing more teachers was clearly the road to excellence, and if standardizing our curriculum and designing tests for each and every component of it were really the way forward, we’d expect to see these strategies all over the home pages of web sites of leading private independent schools, and we’d certainly expect to see these issues addressed throughout the pages of journals geared toward innovative school leaders, like Independent School Magazine.

So then, what is the philosophy taken by the elite schools - classrooms for children of reform sales-folk?  (Referenced in the Baker piece):

Independent schools are privileged. We do not have to respond to the whims of the state, nor to every or any educational trend. We can maximize our time attuned to students and how they learn, and to the development of curriculum that enriches them and encourages the skills and attitudes of independent thinkers.

Where would such a philosophy come from?  Legislation put forth by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC):

Private schools shall be accorded maximum flexibility to educate their students and shall be free from unnecessary, burdensome, or onerous regulation. 

Did you REALLY see that statement?  

 ...free from 

unnecessary, 

burdensome, 

or 

onerous regulation.  

OK.  Let's get back to the original curiosity...

How is it that merit pay does not work for in the field of education?  View this talk by Daniel Pink as he discusses for which type of work that merit pay will and will not work.  More importantly, pay attention to what really motivates people to work:

There is a long history of failed merit pay philosophy - since the 1920s, yet the Department of Education ignores the science and research.  As Diane Ravitch writes:

After a three-year trial, the researchers concluded that the teachers in the treatment group did not get better results than those in the control group, who were not in line to get a bonus. There was a gain for 5th graders in the treatment group, but it washed out in 6th grade.

Bottom line: Merit pay made no difference. Teachers were working as hard as they knew how, whether for a bonus or not.

But to what effect? The very next day after the release of the Nashville study, the U.S. Department of Education handed out many millions of dollars for merit-pay programs across the country and announced its intention to spend $1.2 billion on merit pay.

Ideology trumps evidence.

Or, what about this piece in the Harvard Business Review (HBR):

"A recent teacher-incentive program aimed at boosting student performance in New York City had no effect at all..."

Larry Ferlazzo references this quote from HBR:

So, just ask any good teacher this question:

Why did you want to become a teacher?

or

What is your motivation?

The answers will vary.

But at the core, the answer will resonate,

in the words of Steve Jobs:

"I want to put a ding in the universe."

The story of ALEC: Help us write the ending (repost)

Repost from Education Votes:
http://educationvotes.nea.org/2012/04/12/the-story-of-alec-help-us-write-the-ending/

The story of ALEC: Help us write the ending

Posted April 12, 2012

 2 comments

TAG ALEC, corporate tax loopholes, Florida, Missouri, Ohio, Privatization, Rep. Mike Colona, voter suppression, Wisconsin

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By Amanda Litvinov / photo by neptunecanada

If a children’s book were written about ALEC, the group that bills itself as an association of conservative lawmakers and supporters, it might be called “The Very Greedy Octopus.” It would read like one of those creepy 19th-century fairly tales that most parents would never, ever read to their young ones—it’s just too scary.

For nearly four decades, the American Legislative Exchange Council has been working in the shadowy deep to rewrite the nation’s laws in favor of the wealthiest corporations and CEOs, no matter the loss to working families, communities of color, the environment or public education.  One sad chapter in the book would tell how that sneaky, selfish octopus saw a school of fish and thought, “Hey, these schools are everywhere—how can I cash in?”

That’s right: ALEC has made it a top priority to fundamentally change the nation’s public school system, not only to divert taxpayer dollars to money-making ventures, but also to squeeze the life out of the unions that protect educators’ ability to advocate for students. Education-focused ALEC bills are tailored state to state, but many push to:

• Privatize education through charter schools, voucher programs and tax incentives, obscuring these programs’ true purpose with positive names like “parent choice” and “innovation schools”
• Clear the way for online (often for-profit) at-home schooling options that benefit corporations, not students
• Reduce local control of schools by school boards and parents, and increase the influence of the private sector
• Use “marketplace standards” to evaluate educators and students, which means more standardized testing and reporting
• Obliterate the unions that help keep our tax dollars working for students and schools

Trampling public education is just part of the story of ALEC—it has lots of other arms out there, and one has a chokehold on voters’ rights. The group’s efforts to disenfranchise those most likely to vote ALEC members out of office through laws meant to confuse and disqualify them on Election Day are well documented.

But this greedy octopus might finally have reached too far. After exercising unprecedented influence in the 2010 midterm elections, ALEC coordinated an attack of shocking anti-collective bargaining bills across the country. The eventual results were a public uprising and new scrutiny. In Wisconsin, 1.9 million people signed petitions that put Gov. Scott Walker on notice: He faces a recall election this June. In Ohio, a citizen veto overturned the part of SB 5 that would have stripped public employees of collective bargaining rights. The backlash prompted other lawmakers to back off of some of their worst anti-worker proposals, and spurred new efforts to reveal ALEC’s involvement.

Broad public awareness of ALEC multiplied exponentially when it was revealed that the group is behind the “Stand Your Ground” gun law meant to protect the man who shot unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin in February. Intense media coverage and anti-ALEC petition campaigns  have flourished since the incident.

Over the past week, some of ALEC’s powerful corporate members (Kraft, Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds and Intuit) have pulled out of the group. You can sign onto a petition asking more corporate members—who pay up to $25,000 each year in dues, providing nearly all of ALEC’s $7 million annual budget—to stop supporting ALEC’s destructive agenda.

And now some legislators are breaking those ties, too. Yesterday Rep. Mike Colona (R-MO) said in a statement that ALEC ”is not the innocuous, bipartisan organization it purports to be. Their agenda is radical and wrong for Missouri. I was a member and saw firsthand the sort of extreme legislation they push on state legislators around the country. I disagree with ALEC’s extremist agenda and encourage my colleagues in the Missouri General Assembly to end their affiliations with the group.”

Keeping the spotlight on ALEC’s power grabs is an important step in loosening its grip. The Center for Media and Democracy offers tools on its truth-seeking website, alecexposed.org, that everyone can use to better understand how ALEC operates and to track ALEC-sponsored bills in their state.

You can co-author the ending to this story: Help us make sure the Very Greedy Octopus gets his comeuppance!

1. Sign our petition asking lawmakers to close the very corporate tax loopholes that groups like ALEC have worked so hard to create.
2. Go to alecexposed.org to see whether your state legislators are members; if so, pressure them to resign their memberships. (Remember, access to lawmakers is what keeps corporations involved.)
3. Forward articles about ALEC, and share them on your social media networks to help expose how ALEC wields power over public schools and the middle class.

United States of ALEC by Bill Moyers

Repost from Bill Moyers:
http://billmoyers.com/episode/encore-united-states-of-alec/

Encore: United States of ALEC

November 30, 2012

Revealing the hidden world of ALEC — corporations and state legislators colluding to write laws and remake America, one statehouse at a time.

http://vimeo.com/54585994