Merit pay promotes teacher self-interest

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to revolutionize California

education by adding merit pay to the education budget. At first

glance, it sounds like a great idea to make teachers try their very

best to improve their students’ learning, just like competition does

for sports or business.

But after 25 years in the classroom, teaching at all levels, I can

say that it is a very poor idea.

One of the most wonderful parts of being in education is the

climate that a cooperative environment brings to a school or campus.

Teachers in my school shared ideas, worksheets, books, supplies and

teaching units that they had worked hard on, to improve all our

classroom teaching. We spent hours together planning how to improve

the education of our low-, medium- and high-achieving students,

without thinking of ourselves at all. Teacher lunches were not

social, but informal meetings on how to deal with difficult or gifted

students, or with new concepts we needed to teach. It was a warm,

friendly and cooperative atmosphere, and it is what I miss most about

teaching, now that I am retired.

With the merit pay proposed, would teachers share their hard work

or new ideas with “competitors”? Would they accept a difficult or

extremely low-achieving student, a transfer child in the middle of

the year, a non-English speaking child or other principal requests?

The obvious answer is no!

Teachers might refuse to take combination classes, accept student

teachers or add a new subject, as this would detract from overall

classroom performance. In today’s climate, lawyers might sue the

school if teachers were kept from extra merit pay by these

hindrances. Parents would sue if their special-needs children were

not given the extra time and attention they deserve.

How would the classes be put together in the fall to make sure

each class was exactly the same so as to create a level playing field

for merit pay?

The administrators and staffs could play corporation politics with

this option, making sure their friends got the better students and

thus the merit pay.

What would be used for this merit pay scale? Standardized test

results would be accurate, but not fair due to all the variables that

come into a classroom, and that would mean teachers would teach only

for the test all year, leaving our bright students bored, and their

excitement about learning lost forever.

There are better ideas and solutions to help improve our students’

learning. These include statewide academic parenting classes for

parents to help their children get excited about learning and come to

school better prepared.

Our governor should forget about merit pay in the California

classroom. Merit increases may work for business and sports, but it

will further ruin our educational system. This is one of those

situations in which the unexpected consequences are easily

anticipated, and the treatment is far worse than the original

illness.

MIMI GLUECK

Newport Beach