A Compensation Plan With Merit

by Kristen Blair - September 13th, 2007 - North Carolina Education Alliance

In the business world, top performers are routinely rewarded with handsome financial bonuses and generous raises. The flip side is true as well: missing the mark entirely just might mean getting the boot. Such a reality-based compensation system of cause and effect keeps employees on their toes.

Public education, on the other hand, generally operates under a far different – and counterintuitive – set of incentives, linking financial remuneration for teachers with credentials and years on the job, instead of individual student achievement gains.

And that is the problem. We have teachers all over America who are handsomely compensated for their "great job" and students are falling further and further behind. There is no measure of teacher accomplishment other than how well the students learn worth caring about. I do not believe it is fair for the measure to be how well the least successful 10% learn but the willingness to drag our schools down to the lowest common denominator is part of the reason overall attainment has been sacrificed.

Excluding those who are discipline problems and those with special learning needs, the other 90% of our students should be doing better today than students of any time in history. We certainly have the tools to expose them and challenge them better. The computer technology that allows us to use distance learning and repetitive skill drills provides opportunities unimagined in the past. What do we do? Our teacher unions oppose them and insist that neither of these can be used.

With technology today we should have the greatest education system that ever existed. If we don't it is because the school administrators are resisting intelligent goals. Insisting that measuring teachers cannot be based on how well our children are learning is a major part of that insanity. No other measure, including almost every measure currently used, is worth anything. They are an insult to our children.