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Performance pay will not improve teaching or learning
Research shows that the carrot of higher pay does not lead to better results. In an authoritative study conducted at Vanderbilt University, for example, teachers who were offered bonuses for improving student test results produced no more improvement than the control group.
Similar studies of teacher merit pay have shown null results in New York City and Chicago. Because of the lack of positive results, a number of pay for performance programs have been abandoned, including programs in New York City and California.
Methods that use test scores to evaluate teachers, including the currently popular “value added” calculations, have also proved highly unreliable. The National Academy of Sciences and experts assembled by the Economic Policy Institute have warned of the potentially damaging consequences of implementing test-based evaluation systems or merit pay based on test scores.
Performance pay may in fact drive more talented teachers out of the profession. Studies show that while money matters to teachers, working conditions are more important. Teachers want to work in supportive environments, where they have scope for creativity as well as rigor, and where colleagues collaborate, rather than compete, with one another. If performance pay pits teachers against one another, places even greater pressure on test results, and creates doubts about the system’s fairness, more teachers are likely to look for other lines of work.
http://parentsacrossamerica.org/performancepay/
