Should Teachers Be Paid For Performance? Is It In The Interests Of Better Education?

Some school boards are looking to introduce pay for performance bonus systems for teachers, while others have already done so. On the surface of it, it makes some common sense that better teachers should receive compensation for being better teachers, but in fact, it's a much more complex issue than it might seem to be on the surface.

There are a lot of practical issues about how to administer these systems in a fair, objective way, but there's also another central issue which has to do with whether paying "better teachers" more will actually improve the school system. There's research that suggests it doesn't work, and I've explained one of the reasons why pay for performance doesn't address the causes of school problems.

Still it's important to understand the arguments on both sides, so below are collected some of the better articles, research studies, and opinion pieces on this important topic.

One note: As you read these remember that often the writers and researchers can have biases from the start. For example, it's not surprising that the NEA, or other teachers' unions are against pay for performance for teachers, since unions never support such schemes regardless of industry. Similarly, there are political biases, Democrat vs Republican, Left vs. Right and so on. It's good to keep that in mind because even research can be contaminated by bias, even unintentionally.

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School districts are looking at, or have started implementing a pay for performance system for teachers, where they are trying to reward "better teachers". It's a very hard system to make work, so we're going to explore the good, bad and ugly of merit pay for teachers through articles, research and

Research, Opinions, Articles On Pay For Performance For Teachers: Pay For Performance For Teachers

Texas Studies On Effectiveness Of Pay For Performance For Teachers - by Vanderbilt University
Collection of research reports evaluating various pay for performance for teachers schemes looked at in Texas. Reports exist for GEEG, DATE and TEEG programs. (Views So Far 317 )

The Problem with Performance Pay For Teachers - by Donald B. Gratz
Excellent piece with valuable insights into pay for performance, including a brief history of the attempts. Great starting point on the topic. (Views So Far 300 )

Why merit pay for teachers sounds good but isn't - by Esther Quintero
Washington Post piece on the problems with merit pay for teachers. Excerpt: Although individual pay for performance (or merit pay) is a widespread practice among U.S. businesses, the research on its effectiveness shows it to be of limited utility (see here, here, here, and here), mostly because it is easy for its benefits to be swamped by unintended consequences. Indeed, psychological research indicates that a focus on financial rewards may serve to (a) reduce intrinsic motivation, (b) heighten stress to the point that it impairs performance, and (c) promote a narrow focus reducing how well people do in all dimensions except the one being measured. (Views So Far 293 )

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