Merit Pay
As a student who his currently getting my elementary education degree from Western Illinois University, I feel strongly on the issue of merit pay. There are many different opinions and feelings on merit pay and how it will truly benefit teachers and their students. As of right now, the concept of merit pay is flawed. Teachers are given a monetary bonus based on his or her students’ test scores. However, if teacher #1 has seven students with learning disabilities and teacher #2 only has one, whose students will receive better standardized test scores? Does this necessarily mean that teacher #2 is a better educator? The teacher with seven students with learning disabilities may have a difficult time raising their test scores, but that does not mean that those students have not improved greatly since the beginning of the academic school year. To my understanding, President Obama feels that these monetary bonuses should be given to teachers based on his or her own performance. Schools should create a form of assessment that is judged fairly and that also prevents any biased opinions or favoritism in within the schools. However, it is difficult to come up with an assessment plan that evaluates teachers performance without looking at the students test results as well. I feel that teachers who work to increase their knowledge and work to succeed in their profession are the ones that should be rewarded. Those who return to school, take extra classes, attend seminars, and overall seek extra help to improve should be the ones who receive the additional bonus pay. Through this plan, the rules are clear cut and the problem of favoritism will not play a role in who receives merit pay. Overall, my suggestion is that teachers who work to better themselves as teachers and model citizens for our students should be rewarded.
This post was submitted by Caitlin Scott.
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