Merit pay could eliminate the need for No Child Left Behind
“Developing a merit pay system that accurately reflects student progress would be the best course of action for student improvement because motivated teachers produce motivated students.”
Rana Harvey
Columnist
Commonwealth Times’ Twitter
The hype from the No Child Left Behind Act has diminished since it hasn’t come close to improving standardized test scores at the rate it promised. States now have the option of opting out and personalizing their own vision of success. This vision needs to fully consider merit pay for teachers to become a reality.
No Child Left Behind was created in 2001 to improve the quality of elementary and secondary education. However its goal – 100 percent proficiency on standardized reading and math exams, in all schools across the nation by the year 2014 – proved to be unrealistic and inefficient.
According to Education Week in 2010, 30 percent of schools were failing to make yearly progress, up from 29 percent in 2006. Experts project that eventually 80 percent of America’s schools will fail to meet the yearly progress standards. Fortunately, the failure of No Child Left Behind has highlighted the prominent role that states play in education reform.
In response, President Obama and his administration have handed back a lot of responsibilities to the states by providing waivers that would ease some of the requirements. In compliance to the waivers, 44 states have adopted specific academic standards as well as teacher evaluations to maximize student achievement and improve failing schools. With the states back in power, it looks like teachers will be held more accountable for the individual progress for each student. For this purpose, teacher evaluations should be connected to some sort of incentive to increase efficiency.
Pay based on performance, or merit pay, has been regarded as unethical amongst many educators – and rightfully so. When it was first introduced, teachers and administrators became so obsessed with financial rewards that curriculums were narrowed to conclude only on a testable basis. Students were no longer the focus, and teachers ended up falsifying results, eventually ending merit pay plans altogether. In the same way though, NCLB left teachers in a similar bind, imposing limits on their ability to effectively teach.
Teachers understand that all children learn differently, and therefore have to tailor lesson plans to reflect these differences. Developing a merit pay system that accurately reflects student progress would be the best course of action for student improvement because motivated teachers produce motivated students. Teachers are the faces of learning for many students. What better way to show teacher appreciation than incentives that reflect their hard work? Teachers could use incentives just as students could use good grades.
No Child Left Behind failed because students were not the focus, but the waivers by President Obama are a step in a more positive direction. Now that the states have most of their power back, it would be smart to put teachers back at the top of the list of priorities by creating a budget to fairly compensate the worth of their work.
Without such, what would motivate teachers to go above and beyond the call of duty? Or aspiring educators to see teaching as both fulfilling and rewarding? Failing to realize the value of good teachers will continue to cause educational mishaps – and prompt failing plans like the No Child Left Behind Act.
