Pros And Cons Of Merit Pay

Today, there seems to be a push to change the policy of teacher tenure. “Roughly 2.3 million public school teachers in the United States have tenure—a perk reserved for the noblest of professions (professors and judges also enjoy such rights).” (Stephey) Tenure refers to a policy which gives teachers a permanent contract that effectively ensuring them a guarantee of employment for life. Stephey continues to state, “Though tenure doesn’t guarantee lifetime employment, it does make firing teachers a difficult and costly process, one that involves the union, the school board, the principal, the judicial system and thousands of dollars in legal fees.”

Richard Kahlenberg, the author of the article Tenure said that tenure was to protect students’ education and those who provide it. He goes on to say that before we can start digging into tenure we should first define what it is. Tenure, for American teachers is awarded after three years, and when it is awarded they have the right to know why a discharge is being sought out by the employer. They also have the right to have the issue decided by an impartial person. Kahlenberg listed why tenure is still necessary, some of them being; it strengthens legal protections, protects a range of people who may be discriminated against that the race and gender antidiscrimination laws do not, and tenure gives teachers the confidence to stand up to outsiders

Small State University is facing the dilemma of how to allocate the $17,400 that the state agreed to give to the management department. Each qualified candidate’s employment information is given to help determine the merit raise decision. Before the decision can finalize, research and analysis will be conducted. A case solution will include the implementation of management approval, budget recommendations, communication and essential steps of the new policy to the university, and fair distribution of merit raise.

There are currently three procedures that are used to select judges. These methods are as follows: executive appointment, election, and merit selection. The goal is to use a process that picks the best judge or the most qualified and experienced. Each process has its pros and cons but there is one that easily stands out from the others.

Tenure was instituted as a means to protect teachers from capricious firings without just cause. Tenure proponents point out that job security is one of a few benefits a teacher can count on and that the practice is important for recruitment and retention in a field where turnover is high. In a profession where salary is still largely determined by years on the job, tenure is defended as protecting more veteran teachers from losing their jobs to lower-paid, novice teachers, discussed Jacobs, S. (2016).

To Hayes the failure of meritocracy comes from its focus on equality of opportunity over equality of outcome. Thus, as inequality escalated, the meritocracy ended up becoming so entrenched and isolated that it is no longer even much of a meritocracy. Hayes cites his elite NYC alma mater, Hunter College High School, as a prime example. The only admissions requirement is passing its entrance exam, yet the percentage students from minority and low income backgrounds has been steadily declining due to the expensive test taking prep courses that more affluent students can afford. Meanwhile the increasingly wealthy “meritocratic elites” isolate themselves from the rest of us in the 99% by living and traveling privately – in gated communities, exclusive clubs and resorts, corporate jets, etc., blaming the masses rather than themselves for societal woes.

In the faculty world, tenure is good. It's seen as an almost sacred concept that leads to the highest-quality instruction, ground-breaking research, and institutional loyalty in the nation's colleges and universities.

What is tenure? Academic tenure refers to a policy which gives professors and teachers a permanent contract, effectively ensuring them a guarantee of employment … for life (Garrett 2013). Tenure prevents schools from dismissing teachers without cause or due process in the K-12 school systems. Teacher tenure is the increasingly controversial form of job protection that public school teachers in all states receive after 1-7 years on the job (ProCon n/a). How tenure is attained, protections it provides, and impacts it may have on institutional structures are key factors when researching tenure. The ultimate question is should tenure be required for teachers in the K-12 school systems?

The teacher tenure policy is only sufficient for teachers who perform unsatisfactory in their profession. Proficient teachers who actually teach, and complete a great job in their profession don’t even want it in view of its biased name and how much incompetence teachers get away with it. The only down side of the teacher tenure policy is it’s ability to keep incompetence teachers in classrooms to waist student’s time and not teach them anything. Teachers who effect a disappointing job at performing a lesson should be fired considering that only means they're keeping the job for the money, but aren't actually in it to teach students and help them grow and

The public schools in America have a highly controversial topic, and it is should the tenure system in public schools be eliminated. First, what is tenure? Tenure is the period of how long an employee has worked for a company, school, and just for any type of job. The longer the employee has been working for an employer in the same job, the higher the tenure that person will have. By having higher tenure that person will receive more benefits. Such as, having job stability, higher pay, more recognition, and just have many more benefits compared to someone who has no tenure or less tenure. That seems like a good system on paper, but in reality, it’s a highly controversial system.

It is true that teaching within the period of two to three years will show that the teacher have the quality to educate students, but giving a teacher tenure which makes him to know that he will ne be fired is not a good idea because teachers would lose his ability to educate the students with the necessary skill they desire. Elizabeth Phillips, author of The Effect of Tenure on Teachers Performance reported that “teachers who get tenure students performance drop and the tenure makes it more difficult for school departments to fire them” (Elizabeth 8). The tenure system gives power to teachers in the classroom to do what they want which affect students academically. This tenure teachers will be unable to teach students the necessary skill

For instance, “Once a teacher earns tenure, it can cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars—and countless administrative and legal man-hours—for a district to permanently remove him from his job.” (theatlantic.com) This shows, that a teacher that has tenure costs so much money and takes so much time. Hardly any teacher that have tenure are fired, tenure prevents the school to dismiss the teachers. Similarly, “86% of administrators said they do not always pursue dismissal of teachers because of the costly and time consuming process.” (procon.org/) This proves that, schools have to waste their money on teacher that do wrong things and has tenure. If they do something bad and the school or administrators know it, they still don’t take action because of tenure which causes bad or careless teacher to stay in the classroom, which then can affects the children's future and education. Tenure has made it difficult for school to dismiss

Teacher tenure is needed in the education system, so that it can grow and prosper. Offering protection for teachers, motivating teachers, and motivation to join this field of work help make our education system so great. Getting rid of tenure will only hurt us. Why fix what isn't

Teachers work hard to become a teacher and even harder to receive a tenure. Tenure systems offer teachers job security and a way to ensure that they can continue to teach. Everyone wants to have job security to ensure that they can continue to do something that they love and tenure is a way for teachers to do exactly that. Teachers must spend many years in college to meet the education requirements to teach and must teach at a high level for a number a years in order to achieve tenure. The job security that tenure gives teachers is the reward for all the hard work they have done. Tenure isn’t something that’s just given; it is a justifiable reward for their several years of positive evaluations by school administrators. These positive evaluations are shown through the teacher’s determination and resolve to teach. Some teachers take time out of their lives in order to stay after and help any student who requires additional help. For example, in the past years of grade school my teacher has always made time after school for extra or extended help on a subject. Even if students couldn’t stay after school, she

Over the elementary and secondary school years, there were many knowledgeable experiences that will develop one’s mind cognitively and socially among environmental factors that surrounds them. These experiences may be examined by three notable factors; socialization, national identity and bureaucracy. This paper is aimed to examine the effects of the three essential factors in the settings of elementary and secondary school to demonstrate the factors of meritocracy (eg. multicultural education), produced by the Canadian educational system as it shies away from factors of dominant culture in former curriculums.