Performance-Based Pay for Public School Teachers Essays

Many people wonder if teachers should or should not get paid more than they do. A lot of people believe that teachers should get paid more, but there are some that do not. Parents that want their kids to have a good education want teachers to get paid more. For example, P.V Derkachev said, “… teacher pay influences the quality of education.” (Derkachev 574). Teachers that get payed more would be more likely to perform better at their job and not mind the extra time that they have to do stuff outside of work to get everything done. Matt Barnum said, “Higher salaries --- even small bonuses ---- can and do keep some teachers in the classroom, and likely improve outcomes for their students.” (Barnum). The student is going to get taught better if teachers get paid more because the teacher will want to teach at the best of her ability which will help the student.

As a young student, I have always aspired to become a teacher. Growing up, what I realized was that teaching is my future. Teaching is all I have focused on for years, slowly preparing myself to become a teacher. It is my passion and it was I believe I am meant to do. The only thing that worried me over all was the amount of money that a beginning teacher gets paid. I worry because of my future family. I worry that I won't be able to support them with a low-paying salary that teachers receive. I do not want to juggle around more than one job because that would bring stress and take away my focus from teaching. Though it is not about the money and I would never do it for the money, I worry that I won't be able to live off a teacher salary. Teacher pay should increase because higher salaries would improve the quality of the candidates applying for teaching positions, retaining teachers will become easier, and overall to improve the quality of teachers so the success of students would improve.

One of the main issues with merit pay for teachers is found in the manner in which it is measured. Most of the new performances pay laws and union contracts measure “effectiveness,” at least in part, by looking at the students’ test scores from one year to the next. One test score cannot paint a full picture of a student's accomplishment. Teachers unions have historically opposed merit pay, arguing that test scores are not an accurate measure of student achievement (Turner, 2010, para 15). Most teachers will report that a test will only show part of the picture. Standardized tests do not reflect life lessons, effective citizen traits, or character building traits that were taught that year. All of these traits thrive in an effective teacher’s curriculum.

     High school teachers’ average salary varies across the world. The United States is said to be one of the richest countries in the world, yet our teachers are being paid one of the lowest amounts. The Education Intelligence Agency, author of the article “Ohio Teacher Overcomes Union’s Tolerance” published an International Teacher Salary Report ranking the fifty states by “how much the average salary exceeded per capita personal income.” According to the Education Intelligence Agency Ohio’s percentage rate is only fifty- five point one percent. According to the Education Intelligence Agency the lowest state percentage is in South Dakota at twenty- three point six percent and the highest state percentage is

We need to start appreciating how much time and effort our teachers put forward into our education. They don’t have to waist their lives on the students, but they do it anyways. Why do they have to work so hard off of hours and not get paid for it when others get praised for it? Nobody can understand what a teacher goes through unless it is a teacher themselves. Teachers not only deserve a raise they deserve more respect. Now of days people are starting to give less respect to teachers more and more. Teachers will keep doing what they are doing, but not getting the pay they deserve for the hours they put in during and out off work is not right. Give teachers the pay they deserve or we will see a decline of teachers in our

Merit pay is a short-term, pay-for-performance plan, with a typical life span of three to four years, in which employers provide rewards, usually in terms of a raise for past performance, for employees who perform their jobs effectively, which will lead to higher performing employees which will in turn lead to a better work environment and higher overall productivity. The concept of merit pay is most often mentioned in the context of educational and/or government civil service reform. With a merit-based pay system, the employer pays, with the idea that the employer will reward more productive employees with merit increases. This concept came about in an attempt to sustain high performance levels in the workplace linking merit increases, or increases in base pay, to employee performance ratings, which are taken at the end of a performance year, usually by a direct supervisor. Due to the ever increasing changes of supply and demand in business, in order to remain feasible, the merit pay system is expected to change consistently with the needs presented to the companies, whether it be foreign competition, consumer demands, producer limitations, etc.

When renegotiating the contracts with the Chicago Teachers Union, Rahm Emmanuel proposed an evaluation system performance rating scale for teachers’ raises (Belkin & Banchero, 2012) , he wants the right to lay off teacher in low-performing and under-enrolled schools, a longer school day by 90 minutes, a longer school year by 10 days, and raise the class number to 44 students. The evaluation system that he intends to implement would be a test given to the students in the beginning of the year and then again in the end tracking the progress of the students. Depending on these scores, it would constitute up to 40% of the teachers annual salary performance increase. Emmanuel wants the control to have the ability to lay-off and close schools in the

The problem with Karmanos’ idea is that there’s no provision for merit pay in Michigan, lousy teachers and great teachers make the same as long as they have equal seniority and education. That’s a recipe for mediocrity in any industry. Teacher quality won’t significantly improve until pay is linked directly to performance.

The starting salary of teachers in Oklahoma is about $31,600 (Doney). That is pretty crazy right? Teachers change the world daily by preparing people for life but imagine a world without teachers. How would individuals learn? Would people retain information told to them from a computer? Would computers give you the same life lessons teachers give you? The biggest “emergency” in Oklahoma has come down to teachers (Doney). The demand for teachers has just gone up and up over the past few years and schools seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. This essay will analyze the causes, effects, and preventions of low paid teachers in Oklahoma.

46 percent of teachers leave the profession within the first five years on the job. This is a result of disrespect to teachers in regards to their salary. Those who educate and shape the future generations should not be on the lower end of the pay scale; teachers are not being compensated well enough for the work they do. Teachers not only provide instruction in a number of academic areas, but they offer encouragement and inspiration to the future generations. Teaching is the profession that teaches all the other professions, but yet our educators are still undervalued and underpaid.

Those who are in favor of teacher merit pay systems feel as though the use of this system can eliminate the possibility of seniority outweighing high performance. They believe that those teachers in merit pay systems would be made to perform better in the classroom and demonstrate great teaching skills. Although there is some truth to this idea, it should not be accepted in the argument of teacher merit pay. In the Christian Science Monitor Reg Weaver stated merit pay systems would warrant “an adherence to some type of evaluative standard “ This means that teacher evaluations would consists mainly of the scores from

Teachers have and will always have a big impact in everyone’s life and if not everyone, well, at least they did for me. They teach you everything you need to know about a subject and valuable life lessons, so why are they not paid sufficiently enough to make a decent living? Teachers salaries have always been low and I believe it is the time that changes. Being a lawyer, doctor, or engineer is great, but none of that would be possible without the insight of a teacher, I will inform you in this paper on why I believe there is a need for action. I will go over the background of teacher’s salaries, my ideas on what would be best for teachers not just in Texas, but nationwide, and pros and cons on the issues and ideas at hand.

In school, the quality of the teacher is highly important and is a major factor when it comes to a student’s success. Teachers do not get paid like they are leading and preparing the future generations of the world. The cost of college to be a qualified teacher mimics the numbers of many higher-paid jobs. As stated in Jen Huckwaldt’s article, “For the Love of the Job: Does Society Pay Teachers What They Are Worth?”, she says “[There are] other jobs that pay more with a master's degree, like a database administrator (median salary for all education levels: $69,626) or a software engineer (median salary for all education levels: $77,982).” (Huckwaldt, Par. 7) This is a hefty investment for a relatively low pay with an average base salary of

With beginning teachers usually earning entirely less than other college graduates, the profession is at loss of top-notch, quality people who tend to find jobs seeking more money. Almost 50 percent leave the profession within 5 years, lured by higher pay and prestige elsewhere in the booming U.S. economy (World, 1999, par. 7). Starting teachers average a $25,735 salary in the United States compared to an engineer earning $56,820 or a physical therapist earning $56,600 (Engineer, 2000, par.1). And what signal does it send out about the value of good teachers and a good education when a 45-year-old teacher with a master’s degree earns $45,000 a year and a 25-year-old out of law school often starts at $80,000, considering a six year education for a master’s degree and a seven year education for a law degree (Greenhouse, 2002, par. 4)? A teacher is also given no compensation for the long hours spent basically in overtime work. The teacher’s day does not end when they leave school because if lesson plans, grading, or planning is not completed, it will have to be finished on their own time. Accountants, paralegals, and engineers all are compensated and get paid overtime for work that does not get completed in a regular day or if they want to stay and

Lurking over our great country is a troubling issue that is plaguing the professional educational workforce. When compared worldwide, American teachers work the most hours, yet are paid in the lowest brackets when related to the top 32 nations (Teachers Pay). In addition, when you compare a teacher’s salary to other four year degree salaries, teachers are among the 5 lowest paid degrees (O’Shaughnessy). Not only are the salaries among the lowest in the American workforce, a typical teachers at home workload exceeds all other professional jobs by 20% (Current). Furthermore, teachers were only given a 2.3% salary raise in 2009. Yet the rate of inflation rose to 3.1% causing a loss in purchasing power and creating a hardship on the