In response to a recent email to a university professor and writer regarding the debate of merit pay for teachers:
Ms. Wright,
Thank you for the email and your thoughtful questions and comments. I am in fact even more opposed to merit pay in the public schools today. Since I wrote the article I have found little new evidence that merit pay makes a difference with student outcomes. No doubt this is because effective teachers are already working hard and doing the best they can.
With regard to your comments about extra pay for extra work, of course teachers should earn more for taking on duties outside their contract. My opinion is that they usually don't get paid enough for extra work like yearbook, after school tutoring and coaching. When I was a school district superintendent I made changes to address the low extra duty pay in our school district.
What I do tell the "free market" advocates who push merit pay is that if competition is such a good idea, then why not make teaching salaries competitive with other professions that require a bachelor's degree for entry and expect a graduate degree over time? Maybe we can attract some of the geniuses from Wall Street to teaching in the public schools.
Merit pay doesn't work in public schools because they don't have revenue streams to support it. It is not like the Dallas Cowboys who up the price for seats to pay bonuses to running backs. Inevitably these programs collapse because school districts cannot run a merit pay plan and keep their salary schedule up to attract quality new teachers in the first place.
As far as you getting $1500 for doing a good job, I think that is great. But I wonder if the recognition was more valuable to you than the money?
Again, thank you for the email and good luck with your graduate studies.
Al Ramirez, Professor
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
Dept. of Leadership, Research and Foundations
