Anne Tolley spoke to Roger Kerr and mates about education last night. I trotted along for a listen.
Roger Kerr raised the question of performance pay for teachers. Being the audience it was they all thought performance pay is a good thing. There was no discussion about why they thought it was a good thing, just general agreement that it should happen.
The question I have for those who support performance pay for teachers is – which part of a teacher’s performance will they get paid for?
Common sense says teachers should get paid more if they get students to achieve the National Standards.
So what happens in those schools and regions where students enter a classroom at the beginning of the year well below the national standard? Why would a teacher want to teach in a school like that where despite his/her best efforts the student makes heaps of progress but fails to get over the National Standard ‘line’.
It would simply be a business decision for a teacher to teach in a school in a ‘good’ area, where even mediocre teaching can get a student over the standard. This will result in a migration of teachers to ‘easy’ schools and disadvantaged schools would struggle exasperating underachievement.
Digging deeper, what happens if a teacher does get the struggling student over the line in reading and writing, but fails to in maths?
What happens if a teacher gets 24 out of thirty kids over the national standards line, but six students don’t make it? Is the teacher a good teacher or bad teacher? Eighty percent success isn’t too bad, or is it?
Trouble is that figure equates to 1 in 5 students failing.
Let’s dig deeper still, in the maths curriculum there are 5 strands – number, statistics, measurement, algebra and geometry. Is a teacher a good or bad teacher if the student meets an achievement benchmark in algebra, geometry, statistics and measurement – but not number?
Again that is an 80% success rate, achieving in 4 out of 5 strands in the one curriculum area. But we want kids to be able to achieve in numeracy and literacy, and failing in the ‘number’ strand means the student isn’t numerate.
Is a teacher good or bad if they focus on ‘number’ over statistics, algebra, measurement and geometry?
Are we saying these other strands aren’t important?
If my receipt of a performance pay bonus depended on me making sure kids were numerate over statist-erate, or measure-ate, or algeb-rate or geome-rate, I would focus on numeracy – statistics and everything else can go to hell.
And let’s look deeper again. A class of thirty, 5 strands in maths alone, 30 x 5 = 150 targets a teacher has to achieve to be deemed successful, just in maths. Maths is generally taught about 5 hours a week. Bugger that, if my performance pay bonus depends on the class achieving in maths, I’ll dedicate most of the week to that. A balanced curriculum can get stuffed.
That’s not even counting the 4 strands in science (or is science no longer important), 3 strands in technology (or is technology [R&D] no longer important), 5 different styles of writing, oral language, 4 health and PE strands, dance, drama, and other arts strands, languages etc.
How many strands does a teacher have to make sure each student achieves in before s/he deserves a performance bonus?
Multiply the number of students in a class by the number of strands across the curriculum and a single teacher has thousands of performance targets to meet a year.
Then there are all the other things that teachers do besides making kids learn.
Do they deserve performance pay for – 1) doing duty?, 2) coaching sports teams? 3) being associate teachers of student teachers? 4) being tutor teachers for beginning teachers? 5) liaising with parents, whanau and iwi? 6) taking after school music or art classes? 7) after school tutoring? 
leading professional development and appraisal of peers? 9) organising school discos? 10) fundraising? 11) organising the school play? 12) organising the school fair? 13) organising sports trips? 14) organising the school library? 15) organising the swimming sports, athletics day, 40 hour famine, breakfast club, buses, cross country, art exhibition, assemblies, class camps, community problems solving, peer mediators, restorative justice programme, assessment moderation sessions, interschool quality learning circles, professional development programme, etc, etc, etc.
Is the teacher who just teaches, a better or worse teacher than the one who runs around and gets involved in the corporate life of the school?
Common sense would say that the teacher who just focuses on the classroom would get better results, so teachers should just teach. To hell with everything else.
Roger Kerr made the comment, “How hard can it be? Surely schools aren’t that complex?”
I’m interested in the performance pay model Roger has in mind.
I would be going one further and getting rid of the teachers who are failing our kids.
Pay the good ones – sack the poor ones.
is it just me or does anyone else find themselves laughing when they read this????
” In another report on the standards, issued this week, the Education Review Office found 33 per cent of schools had either not considered how to moderate teacher judgments or were just beginning to look at it. There was a series of “challenges” for all schools to improve moderation.
Asked about the figures yesterday, Education Minister Anne Tolley initially said: “ERO didn’t talk about moderation.”
She later said she “didn’t mean to say that”. “What I was talking about was I don’t think we should get too hung up on moderation.
“I think we’re a long way away from worrying about that at this stage. Certainly next year, the probing around teacher judgment is going to be really, really important, but we’ve got to let these poor teachers implement the standards first.”
It was a complex matter for schools and teachers to moderate the standards, she said.
The ERO report also showed 27 per cent of teachers had limited or no understanding of the standards and only 15 per cent of teachers understood them well.
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More than half of all school trustees had limited or no understanding of them.
Mrs Tolley said she was concerned that one-fifth of schools were not prepared for the standards. “There’s obviously some strong leadership issues there.”
An excellent posting, Kelvin. I concur with everything you’ve said. I know it’s been said before, but isn’t it amazing how everyone is an expert in all things education and so feel able to make wide ranging pronouncements about how things should be. Ignorance speaks loudly. I would love to see what would happen if Roger Kerr et al were dropped into a classroom for a term and told to get on with ‘performing”. Sadly that experience can never be tried as it would see the children in that class having their education compromised. Of course we all know that setting high benchmarks in the so-called national standards will cure all problems, so maybe Roger et al would be successful after all. Tui ad here?
A good and interesting post. Another big factor in creating ’success’ at school is the influence of parents. Students can have the best teacher in the country, but if they are not being supported and encouraged by their parent(s) then they will not do as well. Performance pay would not take any of this into account, or other out-of-school factors that can have a huge impact on the ’success’ of a child at school.
I think the first place to start would be: which other countries (or states or whatever) have instituted performance pay for teachers? How do those systems work? What problems and benefits are there? etc.
I don’t rule out that no-one has done this, ever, but that does seem unlikely.
Your post here seems to imply that it is impossible to have a workable performance pay system for teaching. Whether it’s a good idea for New Zealand is a different question, but the implication that it just cannot work in any shape or form seems a little out there.
I think the theory is that principals at individual schools determine performance pay and bonuses.
So the performance pay system that gets designed should take this into account, then. That’s that problem solved =)
Next?
Kelvin, I was also there last night and there were just 3-4 questions after a speech and (to be fair) the Minister said it wasn’t on her agenda. The audience was, as you say, largely favourable to the idea, just as you are largely unfavourable to it.
I imagine most people in that room had been subject to some form of performance pay, just as most teachers haven’t. I’m sure the experience shapes the beliefs of both.
If I was working in sales, I’d expect a pretty clear performance-based system ie a commission on sales. But if I was working in consulting, or medicine, or education, I’d expect a much more nuanced system. There would be some elements that would be common across most or all staff, and some that would be specific. I wouldn’t expect the performance system to reward everything in the job description, but to focus on those organisational and personal development elements that seemed most important.
Putting a performance-based pay system into the compulsory education sector would be difficult technically and politically and I’m not sure it’s the first cab off the rank. But it’s not impossible or outlandish.
Teachers are already absolutely loaded with crap responsibilties, duties and reports…
How about we try trusting teachers to teach, raise the standards to enter teachers training college and limit the places to the number we need and pay teachers a higher starting salary with a slower increase in pay scale…
No national standards, just a broad cirriculum that teacher can pick and choose from to achieve learning goals…
These are the common themes of Singapore and Finland – the best two school systems in the world…
Living in an area where there are a lot of people that have english as a second language, I wonder what will happen to the teachers at the local school? Hmmm.
Considering we are on of the only countries, or could be the only country that test these children and ones with learning difficulities, performance pay I don’t think will work!
well said jeremy.. and shame on you chris. that was an ill considered and pointless comment. as usual. what i havn’t seen her(correct me if i’m wrong) is that this proposition would create the motivation for schools to doctor the figures to maintain funding levels.
i point to the USA as an example of this happening. once you have identified the weaker elements of your student body, how easy would it be to say, organise little holidays/school trips, etc for those students when exam time comes around.
they could be given extra credits for taking part in extracarricular activities organised by said schools.
the choices are almost limitless.
@ BBFloyd.
I stand by my view. There are good workers and bad workers in every industry / profession.
I firmly believe in rewarding the good ones and cutting the poor ones.
I think back to my teachers – I can think of 2 who were exceptional – I would like to see my children having all their teachers being exceptional – and the truth is many are from from being so.
So why not get rid of the bad ones? Would you prefer a top teacher teaching your child as opposed to a lousy one?
So no shame on me – shame on the unions that shield and hide poor performers who are hurting our kids.
>>, “How hard can it be? Surely schools aren’t that complex?”
Certainly no harder that national standards. And that is going so well
All for performance pay, as long as there is support financially from the govt to enable each student to meet their potential, that means the like of ORRS funding is available for students that need it, not just those on the extreme edges that the budget allows to be funded. The same is applicable regarding dyslexia, to qualify there first has to be an assestment costing $400. Mechanisms are best implemented at the earlist age possable. It has taken many years for this form disability to be recogised yet only marginal funding has been allocated. So with these and other shortcommings within our education how do we also expect teahers to achieve measurable targets?
Perhaps reducing the institutions that can train teachers and concertraing on a few and give them strong teaching. I am aware of teachers comming out of training college in their 3rd year practicums unable to place punctuation in the correct place e.g. where a ? should be placed, or with the abilty to spelly the months correctly
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch/489407
Sure we may send our soldiers out on UN work under resourced but why is this not the exception but a continuation of all govt depts.
Fund education appropiately, get great teachers then have a reward base system.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED0806/S00041.htm
How come the Minister for police waits for policy suggestions from the head of the police, but the Minister of Ed bypasses the experts ???
Frankly most parents arent even experts on parenting let alone teaching which are different things by the way. Most people are parents because they have children not beacsue of their knowledge of parenting
All for performance pay, as long as there is support financially from the govt to enable each student to meet their potential, that means the like of ORRS funding is available for students that need it, not just those on the extreme edges that the budget allows to be funded. The same is applicable regarding dyslexia, to qualify there first has to be an assestment costing $400. Mechanisms are best implemented at the earlist age possable. It has taken many years for this form disability to be recognised yet only marginal funding has been allocated. So with these and other shortcommings within our education how do we also expect teachers to achieve measurable targets?
In moderation AGAIN !!! No bad language, disparaging comments, blindly attacking Lab, some unique forms of spelling. And on topic. o/\o
“Frankly most parents arent even experts on parenting let alone teaching which are different things by the way.”
Oh yes we are Tracey, eventually. It’s called learning on the job. And didn’t we all learn about raising children very fast. And didn’t we all feel so proud the day they graduated from whatever. And aren’t we still so proud as they go through their own parenting training. And didn’t we follow their education with great interest and communicate regularly with teachers so each knew what the other expected. So really teaching and parenting aren’t too far apart.
Actually for most parents, parenting is poles apart from teaching but dont tell a parent that.
You dont sound like the average parent to me Richard, well done with your kids.
Given your assumption that performance is how students are measured against the national standards, wouldn’t a measure of performance be how accurately assessed work is measured against the National Standards.
For those who agree, look at this then tell me how that would work.
And as Clare had taken me off moderation, why am I back on a day or two later? It makes it hard to contribute to debate with this going on.
Darryl says “I think the theory is that principals at individual schools determine performance pay and bonuses”.
Here is a suggestion for you Mr Davis.
Just as the teachers of NZ and their union reps have repeatedly asked for the National Standards to be trialled,
will you and them then support a trial introduction of performance pay for teachers ?
For the people in NZ who work in the world outside school (and there are a substantial number of them), pay based on performance is very common. Where it is not used, there are resentments arise that some people are overpaid, and others work too hard. Performance pay is common sense for the common people.
Come on Labour, wake up !
So from those who support performance pay, what part of a teacher’s performance should they get a bonus for? Getting kids across a line? If so, in what strands of which subjects? What percentage of students need to pass – or conversely, what percentage is acceptable to fail? If we don’t expect all students to cross the line in all strands, in all subjects, which strands and which subjects is failure to cross the line okay? and if it’s okay to fail in those strands in those subjects, why bother to teach them at all, why don’t we chuck them out altogether so that teachers focus only on that where failure is unacceptable? Is any failure acceptable? If getting kids over a line is not the best measure, what measure is? Do we reward teachers who “add value” to education because they teach violin or coach the 1st XV? Or is “adding value” a wishy-washy lefty waste of time when we want our kids to succeed in numeracy and literacy?
I’m yet to see a model that I think is fair and will raise achievement.
Can some one describe a performance pay model that they think may work?
@ dave guerin, I’m actually genuinely interested in how your folk think it would work. I’ll decide whether I’m in favour or not once I read some sensible model, but at present no one has come up with one that I think would work in the compulsory education sector.
@richgraham – come up with a model that you think will work, will be fair to teachers and most importantly will raise achievement. If you genuinely propose a model and are open to honest feedback, I’ll engage. But if you want to use it as a chance to sling off at teachers and Labour, forget it.
@richgraham – conversely if you are open to a trial with performance pay, will you support a trial of National Standards?
Kelvin,
I’m not going to propose a comprehensive system for Performance Pay in a ‘blog post – it deserves a better response than that.
However, I will say that you’re either being disingenuous or woefully ignorant of the variety of performance agreement and review systems that exist today, in the private sector and in other government departments, and they seem to do fine.
“pay based on performance is very common”
Really? In my experience and observation pay based on performance tends to be in middle management and above, hardly “common”.
Performance pay is never more despised than in jobs where the performance is so dependant on factors beyond immediate control.
For example, a teacher cannot control how many english second language students are on their list as new entrants. Now, they have to move these children who speak no english, to a NS and on that they will be judged for their pay.
It seems to me that if a teacher can bring those children within cooey of NS in a year they have performed miraculously. CF with a teacher in a decile ten school who gets their students to NS and is deemed to have performed
chris… leaving out our own personal experiences at school. and the ratio you mentioned of good to bad in your experience is actually the norm rather than the exception. this has more to do do with personalities than competence.
my point was that complex issues can never be addressed by simplistic “solutions”. that approach tends to have more pitfalls than answers.
reality check.. the vast majority of teachers are motivated, competent people who are there for the right reasons. the weeding out of unfit teachers has been going on for decades now. maybe it’s time to look for new approaches rather than just scapegoating.
@Chris can you describe why those teachers were good in your opinion? Did the whole class share your view? Did the whole class learn because of them? Did the whole class pass all the tests or exams? Did they pass because of the teachers or in spite of the teachers? What would your rationale be for giving them a performance bonus and could that rationale be applied fairly to all teachers?
I hold a particular teacher from my high school days in high esteem, I did exceptionally well because of him in that particular subject. Because of what he did for me I would say give him a performance bonus. Trouble is he only got 73% of his class to pass school cert that year. That’s worse than 1 in 5 failing (which is the line Anne Tolley keeps coming up with). So I guess he should have been sacked instead of rewarded.
Lets have performance pay for Cabinet ministers first.
Lets make them responsible for their departments , which they have no control of.
It doesnt make sense, but its a ‘good idea’
LOL
@Phil, call me disingenuous AND woefully ignorant if you want, but either put up or shut up. All you have to do is describe a performance pay system that will work in the compulsory education sector.
Kelvin – Cant be that hard (in theory) for those who know education to come up with something, rward the progress or asses the ability (I understand ERO already does this). The big problem I have seen is everywhere I’ve worked the managers use performance pay to to reward friends, brown-nosers and those who will not join the unions.
@Jeremy, those in education weren’t the ones last night asking for performance pay – right wing businesspeople were. Since everyone is an expert on education these days, I’d like them to put up a performance pay model they think would work in the compulsory education sector. What exactly does ’show progress’ mean. Progress by who? One student? All students? 80% of students? Progress in what? What is acceptable progress? How is it all tied in to a workable and fair performance pay system?
Assess the ability – what does that mean? Assess the teacher’s ability? I go back to what I’ve written earlier – how do you assess the ability of a teacher who gets 24 out of 30 students above a benchmark? Or gets all kids to read and write to a particular standard, but not all students to do maths to a standard? They may do well in many curriculum areas, but not all in any given year.
Kelvin, thanks for the feedback. If it was a priority issue for me, I’d write something up for discussion, but it’s not. I was just exploring an issue of interest after a speech by the Minister. I’m happy you were interested enough to start this thread as it developed some different angles, but I don’t feel a burning desire to write a policy paper.
By the way, I’m in education and at least two of the other commenters on performance pay at that function were as well. Not just business people, but quite likely rightwing
‘It would simply be a business decision for a teacher to teach in a school in a ‘good’ area,’
quite profound that.
@Dave – this is the trouble with the right, the talk in slogans and mantras, witness Roger Kerr that night saying, “Why isn’t there performance pay for teachers? Surely schools aren’t that complex?”, but ask them to engage on the details and not a whisper.
Roger Kerr thinks it’s simple but you say you’d need to write a whole policy paper.
How about someone from the right just come up with a broad outline of what a performance pay for teachers model may look like and it’s merits assessed and debated?
Kelvin, that’s just a bit silly. If someone raises an issue at an event but then doesn’t want to develop a full policy about it, how is that a problem? You decided to write a blog post. Good on you. I’ve appreciated the discussion. If someone had given a speech on it or made a public proposal, it’d be fair to challenge them opn the details. Personally, I make public comments all the time on my blog and elsewhere on issues I care about – I don’t really care that much about this issue.
As a teacher I’m all for performance pay, as long as educators get to decide who gets it. I reckon that almost every teacher in the Primary Sector will qualify given the very good achievement in our schools as evidenced by our results in testing such as PIRLS and TIMMS where we are one of the top performing countries in the OECD. A pay rise for at least 80% of all primary school teachers – well deserved I reckon.
While we are at it how about the government funding teachers for all those extra activities that they do in their own time like Saturday sports and for the nights they work late on productions and the like. Pay them for having no lunch hour when they are on duty and reimburse them when they bring food for kids who don’t have any and when they dig into their own pockets to buy stuff for their class that the school budget doesn’t allow for.
Man! The teachers I know will all welcome pay for performance – might see them get what they already deserve now.
(no I don’t really believe that PFP is a good thing)
A thirteen year old said to me last week.
“I hope Labour gets in next election as they will get rid of National Standards they are a load of rubbish.”
There is no expert testing in schools for Dyslexia. There are no specialist teachers in most Primary schools to assist Dyslexic kids to reach their potential. I know one with the cognitive and language ability of a 29 year old. We have no idea how many Dyslexic kids there are in our classrooms. If Parents suspect their child is Dyslexic it costs $650 for expert testing and $30 per hour for tuition.
The child I know came home from school at age 6 and told her parents “There is something wrong with my brain and that is why I can’t read” She had figured it out for herself as the words were dancing on the page in front of her eyes. Her parents were fortunate enough to be able to get her tested and afford tuition for almost 2 years to get her up to speed in her reading. She needed special glasses for two years also.
If the Govt really wants kids to reach the standards they need to address the lack of support for Dyslexic kids in the majority of schools. The Labour Govt has neglected this problem also. Our jails are full of Dyslexics. People are unemployed because they slipped through the cracks because they are dyslexic.
I challenge Labour to do something for our Dyslexic kids when next they are in office.
On the face of it, It seems fair to reward people who perform better than others with more pay.
If anyone can come up with a fair and valid performance measurement. Fine.
However even in the private sector this is fraught with difficulty.
Unless performance has a single clear measurement business has a poor record with targeting performance pay.
Sales may be OK. As you can measure performance by the number of sales. But, what about the back office contribution to sales. The receptionists contribution.
In less easily defined jobs like management, performance pay has failed to deliver better performance.
In fact higher pay to top management and higher performance pay, in British research, correlates with the worst performing companies.
What measure do you use. Return to shareholders. It is easy to maximise return to shareholders short term by sacrificing the long term viability of the company. By then the manager has taken the money and run.
Production. Was it the manager or the staff?
Sales. Was it better training, better support, better product or sales team performance.
While I would be the first to agree that there are some time serving teachers who should not be there. I’ve seen those people in many other professions also.
There are also stars who stand out, however the majority, like most professions, are dedicated, hardworking people who try to do their best for their students. This is constantly made more difficult by power seeking politicians attempting to impose their latest fad.
but either put up or shut up. All you have to do is describe a performance pay system that will work in the compulsory education sector.
Well, here’s a starting point for assessing performance…
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/08/la-times-ranks-teachers.html
By no means is it a complete picture of teacher performance, but it does give sturdy benchmarks upon which to begin the assessment process.
Phil thanks for putting up something as a starting point.
It doesn’t answer any of the questions I’ve posed. What part of a teacher’s performance would they get a bonus for? Just getting the students to be successful at reading and maths? Which strand in maths? What about the other curriculum subjects and the extra curricular stuff? If it’s just a narrow academic focus, then are we prepared for teachers to concentrate just on that narrow focus at the expense of everything else? Or do we still want teachers to do more than what their performance is being judged on. Is that fair?
Thank God for Kelvin Davis. Someone who actually combines logic with facts. What a breath of fresh air. Like Kelvin I would be very curious to see how one defines ,’good performance’.
There are so many different schools,so many different student needs, so many different teaching methods that inevitably one would only be comparing pineapples with bananas.
It would how ever be possible to encourage Principals to actively encourage and support teachers who make positive contributions to the school and try to keep them in the country.
Kelvin – don’t you think you’d have more credibility on issues of literacy if you proof read your press statements?
I know it’s easy to make mistakes – but mistakes get corrected. Two weeks later and there’s no correction on this one. Not much of an example to set
10 August 2010
Media Statement
Come on -let the boy’s Haka
Labour’s Associate Spokesperson for Maori Affairs, Kelvin Davis says the Rugby Union needs to let the boy’s Haka, blow the whistle and start the game.
@Gordy, no, some people will judge me on the quality or otherwise of my ideas. Others will look for an apostrophe out of place as clear evidence I’m unworthy of expressing an opinion.
Teachers should generally not be given performance bonus when the following happen as in Singapore schools
1. About 1% gets the Grade A = 4 months of bonus
2. About 15% get the Grade B = 2-3 months bonus
3. About 5% get the D grade = zero bonus payment
4. The rest get Grade C =half a month bonus
All seems nice and fair
but note:
a. Academic results of students dont’t matter, it is a ‘given’. Which means if you are an excellent classroom teacher, and your students’ results come in the 90 percentile, ie top 10% of the entire natiion, you still get your Grade D.
b. The reason given can be anything ridiculous like, ’students complain….’ usually frivolous complaints like they can’t understand your lessons or given notes. Does not matter if this is just one student
c. It means that the older and experienced teachers are the ones to usually get the D
d. it means that there is a lot of back-stabbing, politiking in the schools.
e. the teachers do not care about teaching, only keep going all kinds of programme to fatten their portfolio
f. And the students carry out these programs for the Grade B teachers
e. Finally when the results are bad, the Principal gets transferred out to another school
f. In comes a new Principal and she says to the staff that results are important. She wants to bring up the school’s results
g. When the evaluation comes around, once again the old teachers are given the D grade, no weightage is given to results again
this is really weird. but this is very true.
So large numbers of old teachers are forced into the mad house or resigned early.
truly a funny reflection of an educational system that is touted as the ‘best’ in the world.
Obviously the top officials get their B and their A in terms of performance bonus. Why would they care about the older teachers
Young teachers who are inexperienced get burned out, coming out with all kinds of programmes to please their Heads of departments.
Half the time, they are in meetings, calling parents when kids are late to school, giving extra lessons, counselling students, the works
Teaching is done. But quality teaching, hah, no energy, and no time.
But who cares…..
How is one to impart values of diligence, excellent work, integrity when half the time you are politiking to get your performance bonus?
Rewarding teachers is a tricky issue, but a model that measure improvement over results, can define the teachers efforts over the raw material placed in front of them. When I did my master the thesis was on performance management and reward systems. I did a separate investigation into non-monetary rewards and measures. Teachers inevitably came up. If you measure a students improvement from start to finish in a year, you can judge the pedagogical input to that student and hence the performance of the teacher, in that aspect. You must measure the “movement” of the student, not necessarily whether they pass NCEA. Rather than have the performance pay system that reduces pay based on performance, you can put an “at risk” portion in the salary, much like many management positions today. Say 5%. This is an option for those who wish. Poor performers will inevitably opt out, and will be paid less in the long term, but maintain a base salary. As a former secondary teacher and now Tertiary academic, I believe it is a bad look from a public perspective that teachers shy away from performance pay. Why do they believe they are any different to the rest of the world. It is the same vain as teachers expecting a 4% increase in salary, but happy the parents of their students get less or nothing. I have seen more than a few teachers who’s passion for the students and their craft has long since left them, and I ask the question if they are “phoning it in” why should they be paid as much as someone who is excellent. There have to be differences based on how good a teacher is. It baffles me that the teachers unions are satisfied that good teachers are paid the same as poor ones. In any other industry, this would not be tolerated.
Interesting read – thanks Kelvin . Performance pay is problematic because we are talking about PEOPLE, and making connections and making a difference in the life of a student. This difference may not being something “measureable” this year or next, but in ten years when as a citizen with empathy, compassion and an understanding of their world, they make fabulous choices as adults. A curriculum that is, as Kelvin says, narrow and focused in only those things that are able to be ticked off will eliminate thinking, creativity, arts, sports, and importantly values and empathy.
I am frustrated with the way in which people want to squash the people-centred, bloody hard work of teaching into a business “tick-when-complete” model. Relationships, which are the core of teaching, are dynamic and changing and difficult to measure – think back to your own school days – there were teachers you loved whom others hated and vice versa. We need a range of teachers as people to connect with the range of students we have. I don’t think teachers are shying away from performance pay – I think they are wary of yet another system that will measure the tiny fragments that are easy to measure and ignore the bigger picture of all the many other aspects of the job.
I wonder if GPs or nurses get bonuses based only on how many cures they make in a year – and forget the times a patient just needed someone to talk to, or a check up? I don’t know the answer -perhaps they do. If that is the case, do Police get a bonus for locking up more people, and judges get a bonus based on the number of convictions they make? I wonder what would happen if we paid politicians only on the number of “measurable” things they achieved each day? Hmm