Akron
Beacon Journal...
Get merit pay right
Better to take care changing the way teachers are paid than rushing a
new program through the state budget
Sunday, Jun 19, 2011
There’s no doubting the strong support in the Statehouse to enact a
teacher merit pay system in Ohio. Witness the various
pay-for-performance provisions included in Senate Bill 5 on collective
bargaining, in Gov. John Kasich’s budget plan and in the House version.
The Senate pulled the merit pay language from its budget bill. As
William Batchelder, the House speaker, has indicated, that sets the
stage for a fight during conference committee negotiations over what to
do about merit pay.
Clearly, embedding the controversial compensation system in the budget
would seal the plan (political insurance, in effect) for the Kasich
administration should opponents of Senate Bill 5 succeed in their
effort to repeal the law. The Senate was right to be concerned about
the unseemly appearance of making an end run around a likely referendum.
But there are other pertinent reasons not to include merit pay language
in the biennial budget bill. The stated goals of a merit-based plan
involve spurring effective teaching in schools and verifiable student
growth. Critically important, then, is that Ohio from the start have
the mechanisms in place for a system that is fair and capable of
serving the purpose consistently across the state.
The argument isn’t that state leaders should not pursue a merit pay
system. There’s a strong case to be made for changing how teachers are
paid — and it has been made for many years. The complaint is valid that
a pay system based on seniority or degrees earned does not necessarily
reward the most effective teachers or serve as incentive to do much
more than put in time. Telling, too, opinion surveys show much public
support across the country for linking teacher pay to student
performance in some way.
More to the point, Ohio applied for and won a $400 million Race to the
Top grant on federal terms, agreeing not only to take student growth
into account in teacher evaluations and but also to factor those
evaluations into decisions on compensating, promoting and retaining
teachers and principals.
The argument is that the budget bill is hardly the appropriate forum to
address the policy questions that come into play, from nonschool
influences on student growth to measuring value added (effectiveness)
per teacher as students move through school. The difficulties are real,
and they are not solely because teachers unions are hostile to the idea.
For a merit pay system to achieve its purpose, it must be clear about
the standards for evaluation. If student growth, measured by state
tests, is to count in annual decisions on compensation, all students
will need to be tested by subject every year.
Is Ohio ready to scale up statewide? The State Board of Education has
yet to complete work on the ground rules. Only a handful of Ohio
districts are experimenting with some form of performance pay. Better
first to get the mechanisms right. It won’t inspire the necessary
confidence to push legislation through and then invite teachers for
input.
Read it at the Akron Beacon Journal
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