The students’ high academic achievements are usually considered as the best results of the good teachers’ performance. However, is it possible to speak about the direct connection between the processes when the teacher’s work is stimulated with the help of money? This principle was discussed as the major one while implementing the new system of merit pay for teachers.
Today, the merit pay program which is provided with basing on the activities of the federal Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) and the United States Department of Education (USDOE) is one of the most controversial aspects of the educational reform in the United States because of the fact there are no strict evidences which could support the hypothesis that merit pay programs can stimulate the improvement of the teachers’ performance, and this situation can lead to the higher students’ results in their studying process (“Teacher Merit Pay”).
Although the teacher’s professionalism and perfect performance are associated with the students’ academic achievements, the United States should not implement merit pay programs for teachers without changing the basics of the educational system because according to the findings of recent researches, there are no direct connections between the students’ performance and teachers’ merit pays due to a range of the other significant factors.
The implementation of the merit pay program in the United States cannot be discussed as the guaranty of increasing the students’ performance at school. In spite of the fact the financial compensations and merits can be considered as a kind of stimulation and the reason for increasing the level of the teachers’ motivation, the first results of implementing the practice in the country’ schools accentuate the fact that the program does not work.
Nancy Protheroe states that “a primary reason for including a pay for performance component in a teacher compensation system is the belief that it will positively impact student learning” (Protheroe 30). However, Protheroe continues that the positive results of the program’s implementation are too limited to be discussed as the influential ones (Protheroe).
The attempts to improve the quality of teaching with the help of merit pay systems should be realized with references to a lot of the other factors which influence the teachers’ performance every day because the changes in the teachers’ approaches can not address the peculiarities of this or that concrete situation in class.
The problem is also in the fact that stating that the students’ performance significantly depends on the teachers’ high level of motivation and their approach to the work, those policymakers who develop the new program accentuate one factor with paying no attention to the students’ level of motivation.
Thus, relying on the possibility that the compensation for teachers can influence the students’ academic achievements, it is necessary to concentrate on many other aspects of the teaching and studying processes. Analyzing the question of the absence of the program’s positive results, the researchers who specialize in the progress of the educational reform state that “perhaps merit pay does not contribute to student achievement” (“Teacher Merit Pay” 3).
The limited positive effects of implementing the system are predominantly based on the impossibility to change the whole educational system with the help of providing only one innovation because of the system’s complex character. Merit pay systems are effective for the other professions, but their implementation in the educational sphere requires the further research and more deep alternations (Protheroe; Ramirez).
Thus, merit pay programs can be implemented in the United States with their depending on the additional reforms in the other fields of the educational system. The financial compensation for a teacher is a good motivator when it is related to a number of the other points. Moreover, Al Ramirez indicates that “merit pay misses the boat entirely – because good teaching is not about money” (Ramirez 57).
The results of the mentioned investigations and the researchers’ conclusions are similar in relation to the idea that the first effects of implementing the merit pay program in the United States are not satisfactory, and they are associated with a lot of aspects as the problem of measurement, the issue of changing the teaching strategies, the question of the appropriate financial support, and the variety of factors which are beyond the teachers’ control.
In spite of the fact the researchers determined definite factors from the limitedness of the first attempts of the program’s implementation to the moral aspects of the question, the conclusions are the same and can be formulated the following way: the program does not work, but it can be examined during the further researches, and then it can be effectively improved.
Merit pay programs can be implemented in the United States with changing the priorities and principles of the system because it is rather difficult to find the direct connection between the teachers’ compensations and the high level of the students’ performance.
The students’ academic achievements depend on a lot of factors, and the teachers’ motivation and performance are also based on the range of components the proper examination of which can help to provide the well-developed merit pay system because now teachers are not ready to change their approaches to teaching under the impact of the merit.
Works Cited
Protheroe, Nancy. “Performance Pay for Teachers”. Principal 90.4 (2011): 28-34. Print.
Ramirez, Al. “Merit Pay Misfires”. Educational Leadership 68.4 (2011): 55-58. Print.
“Teacher Merit Pay: What Do We Know?” The Progress of Education Reform 11.3 (2010): 1-4. Print.