Incentives for good teachers make sense

Stock brokers work long, hard hours. They are at times married to their jobs. Sometimes they perform poorly, and they don’t make much money. Other times they do well, and they are outrageously well compensated. Those who are the most driven can make a career out of what they do. They are good at what they do, and feel appropriately rewarded. Those not cut out for the job find something else to do, and that is fine. Not everybody has the requisite ability and desire to do well.

Some teachers work long, hard hours. They are at times married to their jobs. Sometimes they perform poorly, and they make just about the same as everybody else. Other times they do well, and they make just about the same as everybody else. If Tom will get paid the same to excel as he will to coast, what is his motivation to excel? Honawar and Keller report that a program in Texas to reward teachers whose students excel is having some very positive results (Honawar, 2008). Teachers are working better together, motivating their students better, and feeling better as well. You could make a strong argument that in almost any occupation, the happier worker is the better worker. Is it any wonder that happy teachers reach the students more effectively than grumpy ones?

Certainly for any good educator there is the intrinsic reward of seeing a child make intellectual strides. Depending on the grade level of the teacher, however, these strides may not be apparent for years. Additionally, the warm fuzzy feeling doesn’t pay the mortgage, the bills, fill the gas tank, or add to available classroom expenditure funds. While there are certainly some wrinkles to figuring out the optimal bonus schedule, it makes an awful lot of sense to provide a carrot that can be consumed in the short term.

“Performance-Pay Setup in Texas Shows Promise”. Honawar, Vaishali and Keller, Bess. Edweek.org. Published online March 7, 2008.

Whom do we want to teach our children?

To what lengths should we as a society go to protect our teachers and their responsibility to educate our children? The Center for Union Facts’s recent push to buy the resignation of the nation’s 10 worst teachers (AP, March 10, 2008) is a thinly veiled attempt to break unions, but it begs a very interesting question: Should we work so hard to protect teachers who are not doing their jobs? As we work to create the best possible education system for all, we may have to ask some uncomfortable questions. Without taking an honest, unflinching look at the problems of our current system, we can guarantee that we will fail to address some crucial issues. Shutting our eyes to ugliness won’t make it go away.

As with any other job, there are educators who do the bare minimum, and it is possible there are some who do even less. Ignoring malfeasance, let’s take a look at nonfeasance. What is the avenue for recourse against teachers who simply do not pass on the necessary skill sets and knowledge base to the children in their care? With or without unions it is difficult to remove the veteran teacher who is punching in and out every day, just getting one day closer to his pension. The school systems have standards that have to be met, but how are we holding teachers accountable? Whether because of lacking competence, motivation, communicative skills, or myriad other reasons, some teachers are failing their students. What justice can we give to these students? At the very least, we should make sure future generations don’t suffer the same fate.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/03/10/62980mteacherunionstargeted_ap.html