Educators across the Golden Triangle are watching closely as state lawmakers weigh the pros and cons of performance-based teacher incentives.
Gov. Phil Bryant spoke out last week in support of the concept, which would tie merit pay to student achievement on state accountability tests.
The hotly-contested proposal, which is backed by the U.S. Department of Education and being bolstered at the state level by data gathered from Mississippi State University’s Research and Curriculum Unit, draws a mixed bag of reaction.
While there are passionate supporters and vehement opponents, there are just as many adopting a wait-and-see stance, saying there are too many questions about how a merit pay system would be implemented and what effect, if any, it would have on teacher morale and student academic performance.
Currently, all teachers within Mississippi districts are paid equally according to years of experience, and step raises are distributed in accordance with longevity, with extra pay for graduate degrees and certification.
Each district designs its own teacher evaluation system, but the performance measures are used only to determine training and professional development needs, not to reward high-caliber teachers or weed out ineffective ones.
A new statewide evaluation system is slated for roll-out in 2014-2015, but the goal of the system — at least at the moment — is to guide teachers and help them improve, said Dr. Daphne Buckley, deputy superintendent for the Mississippi Department of Education.
A sneak peek
As lawmakers and education watchdogs keep an eye on the merit pay debate, two Columbus city schools — Franklin Academy Medical Sciences and Wellness Magnet School and Cook Elementary Fine Arts Magnet School — are among 10 schools statewide getting a sneak peek at the plan in action, participating in a five-year pilot program funded by a $10.8 million grant from MDE.
Qualified teachers could receive as much as $5,000 in merit pay per year, according to CMSD Superintendent Dr. Martha Liddell. The first round of merit pay will be doled out this year based upon achievement growth determined by the 2011-2012 state test results, which have not yet been released.
Liddell, a proponent of the merit-based system, said CMSD is fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in the pilot program.
“This new school year will usher in a new era in Columbus schools of teacher and learning instructional leadership and boots on the ground support from the top down for principals and classroom teachers who need appreciation, respect and assistance to build capacity for school improvement,” she said via email Wednesday. “The view from the bridge, and our leadership focus for Columbus schools, is teamwork.”
Few gains
But not everyone is enamored with the idea of merit pay, and some nationwide studies indicate it has little, if any, effect upon student achievement.
In a 2007-2009 study conducted by the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and the Rand Corporation, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based nonprofit research firm, 300 Nashville math teachers volunteered for the POINT (Project on Incentives in Teaching) Experiment.
Teachers in one group were eligible for bonuses of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 per year, based upon achievement gains in state test scores. Teachers in the control group were not eligible for bonuses and were evaluated by historical performance benchmarks rather than comparison with other teachers’ performance.
At the conclusion of the project, 33.6 percent of eligible teachers received bonuses, with an average payout of $10,000.
Beyond slight initial gains in fifth grade achievement scores, the overall results showed no significant academic improvement between students taught by bonus-eligible teachers and those taught by the control group.
‘They can’t work any harder’
That doesn’t surprise Dr. Lewis Holloway, superintendent of the Starkville School District.
Between 1990-1997, Holloway worked in Bentonville, Ark., where the local school district operated a merit pay system. Districts gave $20,000 to each school to distribute as the principal deemed fit. Principals, in turn, divided the money equally amongst teachers.
Teachers hated it.
“I think for someone to believe teachers will work harder for pay-for-performance, they don’t understand fully the heart of a teacher,” Holloway said. “Teachers go into teaching because they love children. I see how hard teachers work, the long hours, the work from home — they can’t work any harder for more money.”
Instead, he sees ways teachers can work more effectively through increased support and technology to determine where students are achieving and where improvement is needed.
The human factor
At the heart of the issue is a flawed salary system, Holloway said. Basing salaries upon years of experience and degrees or certification doesn’t make a lot of sense, he said, but neither does pay-for-performance. While he believes teachers should be paid more for the work they do, he doesn’t think a merit system is the route to take.
Students don’t perform poorly on tests because teachers aren’t trying, he said. They want to be the best teachers they can be, but they are driven by their love for children and the profession. Further complicating the issue is the built-in camaraderie teachers tend to share.
“If a teacher is wounded, there’s a covey effect,” he said. “They don’t react well to competition among each other, and that’s hard for the business world to understand. Schools aren’t a business. It’s a human factor.”
And in many ways, that human factor may tell principals as much, or more, than statistics.
“Schools are magical in that you don’t have to spend very much time in a school at all to know who your best teachers are,” Holloway said. “You can walk down the hall and hear the teachers who are getting it done. You can look at the students’ faces. The whole demeanor of the classroom, the energy, the pace — you can just tell who the great teachers are.”
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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