Teacher merit pay may improve student learning

Date: Wednesday, June 20, 2007
By: Editorial
Source: The Detroit News

Teacher unions have long resisted merit pay. But it is increasingly considered to be part of an effective strategy for improving student achievement. Michigan needs to embrace this idea for the sake of its students.

For years, merit pay has been fought by unions, which argue that multiple pay tiers undermine teacher solidarity. But now, the idea is gaining support among some school districts and local unions nationwide.

In Minneapolis, the education union is working with the state's Republican governor on a plan through which teachers in some schools work with mentors to improve their instruction and get bonuses for raising student achievement.

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded 18 federal grants worth more than $38 million to provide financial incentives for educators in more than 18 states. Even the American Federation of Teachers, the national union, is encouraging efforts to raise teacher quality through merit-based pay initiatives.

Merit pay, in part, is gaining support because of its potential to attract the best teachers to the poorest-performing schools -- the very students who need good teachers most. Hiring bonuses can help close the country's urban-suburban, minority-white achievement gap, experts say.

There's a growing consensus among both Democrats and Republicans that rewarding teachers with bonuses or raises for improved student achievement, working in low-income schools or teaching the toughest subjects can energize veteran teachers and attract bright rookies.

"So many more people now say that the teacher pay system doesn't send the signal that we really do want students to learn more and more. The pay system should be focused on teachers' instructional skills, which are linked to learning gains," notes University of Wisconsin Professor Allan R. Odden.

In Michigan, the largest state teacher union, the Michigan Education Association (MEA), has opposed merit pay largely because of its concerns about the link between a student's socioeconomic status and his or her academic performance.

It's unfair to hold teachers accountable for low-performing students in lower-income areas, the union argues.

The unions also worry about cronyism, or principals rewarding their friends, rather than the best-performing teachers.

However, other school districts are creating new models to address the problem that merit pay may simply reward educators for teaching students already primed for academic success.

As Odden says, "today, we have much more testing of students. You can do sophisticated value-added analyses, so you can be crisp about figuring out which teachers to give bonuses."

In isolated cases at the local level, such as in Fennville and Byron Center in western Michigan, unions and school districts are already exploring and integrating elements of merit pay.

But at the state level, the MEA has not taken a lead on the issue. Nor has Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Michigan was once a leader in innovative educational policy. It needs to open its mind to creative new strategies to bring up student performance levels.

Neither fear nor inertia should prevent the state from experimenting with merit pay initiatives.