Time Cover Addresses Merit Pay

A Time Magazine cover story this week addresses the issue of merit pay, one of Into My Own's pet issues. For some reason they didn't quote us. Funny, isn't it?

Anyway, the story provides a good overview to the issue, including some background on why the merit pay plans in Houston and Florida have flopped, while the plan in Denver has been very popular. (I'll give you a hint: one of the three proposals was developed by teachers.)

Time also explores the presidential candidates' positions on merit pay, even though none of the group has spelled it out clearly. Obama unfortunately has opened the door to merit pay (I bashed him for it here, and have become more forgiving of Obama since), but at least he says merit pay shouldn't be based on standardized test scores. Don't know what he will base it on then, but we'll see.

Excerpt below. Click on the "merit pay" tag to see the full extent of my obsession with this issue.

Traditionally, public-school salaries are based on years spent on the job and college credits earned, a system favored by unions because it treats all teachers equally. Of course, everyone knows that not all teachers are equal. Just witness how parents lobby to get their kids into the best classrooms. And yet there is no universally accepted way to measure competence, much less the ineffable magnetism of a truly brilliant educator. In its absence, policymakers have focused on that current measure of all things educational: student test scores. In districts across the country, administrators are devising systems that track student scores back to the teachers who taught them in an attempt to apportion credit and blame and, in some cases, target help to teachers who need it. Offering bonuses to teachers who raise student achievement, the theory goes, will improve the overall quality of instruction, retain those who get the job done and attract more highly qualified candidates to the profession—all while lifting those all-important test scores.