Merit Pay

There has been a lot of speculation around the country and here in Utah about doing away with teacher unions and basing teacher salary on merit pay.  Northern Utah had one of the school districts sign new contracts during the summer for this very thing, to which if they did not sign they would lose their job.  On the surface this does not seem that bad.  I mean if you perform your job well you get more money, and if you do not you get less money.  Scratch the surface, and I believe this is a very negative thing for education especially for teachers.  First of all, who decides who makes the rules and regulates this?  How can this be fair to every single teacher?  Are some very good teachers going to leave the teaching profession?  Will prospective college students be steered away from the teaching profession because it is very uncertain and unstable?

There has been a big push for PLC's (Professional Learning Community) with teachers working together, sharing information and strategies, and helping each other.  I think with merit pay being put into place the PLC concept will fade fast.  Why would teachers help other teachers do better so they might look better on paper and get more pay, which could result in a drop in pay for yourself.   I can see teachers isolating themselves from each other with no communication or working together.  It could turn into a very hostile work environment with coworkers stabbing each other in the back, throwing each other under under the bus (all figuratively speaking) to get a leg up on the competition.  The counselors, administrators, and special education department are going to be in constant battle with teachers over lower scoring students being placed into classrooms.  I mean, if your pay is based on test performance, teachers will keep close tabs on how many of these low scoring students are in their class compared to other classrooms.  If teacher pay is based on test scores there will be a constant fight about this.  Are these students going to feel welcomed or believe that the teachers like them?

It will be interesting to see what happens to the educational system if the pendulum swings this far.  It may get a whole lot worse before it gets better for the teaching profession.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.