Should Teachers' Pay Be Tied to Student Achievement?

As explained in Diane Ravitch's article, “American Schools in CRISIS,” educators are provided with little job security under Bush's No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Obama's Race to the Top educational reform initiatives; where teachers can be fired based on poor standardized test scores from their students (50). The majority of new teachers already quit within five years of entering the field; “demoralized” (Ravitch 50) by the effects of such high stakes and low resources (Ravitch 52). To combat this figure, many states have decreased the requirements for becoming a teacher, even allowing online licensure in Texas (Ravitch 51). To lower the standards of the “conservators of our common future” (Barber 122) is an irresponsible practice that must be reversed if students are to succeed. Barber proposes paying early childhood educators as much as lawyers to attract better teachers. Higher wages would encourage more ambitious individuals to enter the fields of primary and secondary education. Without highly-trained and intelligent educators, who are dedicated to progress and change, students will continue to stumble through a broken system, woefully unprepared for the task of becoming productive citizens.

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.

Adam’s Equity Theory is a model of motivation which basically states that employees will perform at a more productive rate if they feel that they are being treated fairly (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010). Equity is achieved when a worker perceives their reward for their amount of work to be equal to that of a relevant worker. Negative inequity is perceived by the employee when the relevant worker receives greater rewards for the same amount of work. Positive inequity is perceived by the employee when the relevant worker receives fewer rewards for the same amount of work (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010).

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.

Image your child’s school district can’t afford to offer signing bonuses for better teachers, what does that mean for your child? It may mean that your child may have a less qualified teacher because of where they live as oppose to one of your co-workers whose district can afford signing bonuses. Or does a signing bonus allow school districts to beef up staff when teachers are at an all time shortage? I believe signing bonuses are a great way to woo teachers into maybe staying in a certain district or entice people who may not have thought about a teaching degree, but at what cost?

Bidwell explains, “ Some questioned whether Duncan’s new initiative would open the door for states to tie teacher evaluation systems that take into account student growth measures to their equity plans” (Bidwell, 2014). Opponents to the program believed Duncan’s plans would really be based on test scores.

When choosing ones profession there are always two important questions to ask yourself. Is it what you love doing, and is the pay going to be enough to support you. For me the second question has never had much of an impact on my decision, along with most others who are educators or wish to become one. Teaching is not a job that one chooses to be rewarded by the pay. It is a job that is chosen for the rewarding feeling of knowing that it is the most effective, and most enjoyable way one can change the world; therefore, if teachers are noble enough to sacrifice such a huge aspect just to better our future generations, then don’t you think they should be paid what they deserve?

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.

Due to events in schools across the country, leggings have taken a sharp turn in dress code history. As females continued to wear leggings to school, parent organizations and administrations began to rethink their dress codes. Leggings, which are fitted stretch pants commonly made of spandex, cotton, or polyester, were the center of debate in many schools. They are considered pants, but are sometimes mistaken for tights, or pantyhose. Tights can also be referred to as leggings, but the terms are not interchangeable. Tights are often too revealing, however, leggings are not. Although schools consider leggings to be inappropriate, female students deserve the right to wear them to school because they shouldn’t be the cause of distraction to males, are a form of self-expression, and do not affect education.

We would all like to think that schools are going to educate every child and expect them to bring every child to high standards of performance. Until fairly recently it was a permissible practice to reserve the most qualified teachers for those schools serving high-achieving, affluent, college-bound students who were believed to hold the greatest promise of success. Holding school districts accountable for improving the performance of all schools and all students might well require that resources, both human and financial, be allocated according to greatest need (ca.gov). This notion presents a challenge to public

After school sports might be fun, but it is not helping the students at all. The games themselves might reduce stress levels; but it has been shown that schools tend to spend more on the fields and the bleachers then should actually be spent. A school was almost shut down because of the academic failures, but somehow still had equipment to play games. Therefore, schools should get rid of after school sports because they spend too much money on them, America is lacking academily compared to other countries, and they pay too much attention to the games.

For some students, even though they can get high scores in exam, but that’s all they can do. They just memorize the solution and don’t try to understand and absorb the real knowledge behind the exam, for these kinds of students we can’t say that their teachers do well. Comparing with this, some students have really penetrating understanding to the knowledge, their know how to use them even though it can’t reflect on their exam scores sometimes, but their teachers still deserve higher paid. There is no doubt that we can’t tolerate keeping low-performing teachers in classrooms because it hurts everyone, but the method used to evaluate teacher performance should be sophisticated enough to consider all factors that can affect a child’s success in classroom before they can be used to as a standard to punish or award teachers. Chicago strike also evokes a debate toward salary problem. Chicago teachers have the highest average salary of any city at $76,000 a year before benefits, compared with the median household income in Chicago is $46,000 (BBC News: para 4). So many people couldn’t understand that teachers rejected a 16 percent salary increase when most occupations are not getting and raises and many people are under unemployment. There are two reasons that CTU still raise salary debate even though teachers already get enough paid. Firstly, CTU considered the law aspect. According to Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act, it is illegal for teachers to strike on all

question that is posited, how bias is this system when it comes to teachers who work in poverty

Having just completed writing my paper, I was able to see where my strengths and weaknesses are. Having to write a paper on an argument, I struggled trying to come up with what to write about. Making a valid argument in academic writing is different than that of just making an argument. In a person’s academic argument, the writer should not only show his/her own beliefs, but they need to also show there opposing views. While this may seem easy, it can prove to be difficult because as a writer, they are not allowed to attack a person or group, or the essay can become invalid to the readers. Deciding to stick with writing my topics on teachers, I decided to write an essay on how they are underpaid. This topic not only explores why teachers are underpaid, but it also shows how teachers are viewed.

Going back to the tenure and teacher union issues, I agree that everyone has the right to unionize in order to protect their self-interests, but the idea surrounding tenure is something that needs to be re-evaluated, and the teacher’s union needs to jump on board in order to get the education system moving in the right direction. The writers hint at a way in which tenure can be changed, and that is by offering rewards for high student grades instead of the current rule of once tenure is reached, a teacher can keep their position regardless of their efforts in the classroom. The way the movie presents this alternative method is by showing a challenge between the teachers of the school to earn the highest student grades on the state test; winner earning a bonus of $5,700. This type of evaluation based on student grades can also be taken to the opposite end of the spectrum, and teachers who have unacceptable student scores should be evaluated on their teaching methods, and if seen