Article #15

           The Folly of Merit Pay is an article written by Alfie Kohn. I looked at the article because it was written in 2003, two years after NCLB was administered. In the article, Kohn attacks the myths of merit based pay, and the problems associated with it. It appears merit based pay has been around education for a long time; it just hasn’t been readily accepted or used. Kohn proposes four distinct reasons merit based pay will not work.

            The first condition is Control. Merit based pay is a proposed by bureaucrats, administrators and districts. It becomes a top down dressing which moves accountability from the district, state and government and places the results of test scores squarely on the shoulders of teachers. Not only is this not fair, it doesn’t even include the people that are delivering the message daily. It is patronizing to teachers.

            The second condition is Strained Relationships. The merit based pay causes teachers to compete with teachers. Competition in schools amongst teachers is not a good thing; teachers are less likely to share information. Teachers philosophically are not geared towards competition, and the affects of one teacher receiving a bonus and another not outweigh the positive of an increase in pay.

            The third condition is Reasons and Conditions. The premise that teachers need a gold nugget waived in front of them is demeaning and insulting. Gold nuggets don’t take into account the actual problems in the system. Teachers get involved for the “aha” moments.

            Last but not least, the fourth condition deals with Measurements. Kohn stresses it’s possible to evaluate good teaching practices, but it is tremendously difficult to establish criteria equating what is considered good or bad teaching. What becomes even a greater problem is the use of test scores to determine good and bad teachers. If test scores are being used as criteria, how could someone expect to be attracted to a school in tough shape? Again, good teaching is tough to measure by quantitative factors.

            What Kohn is suggesting is being valued here is the corporate business model we’ve been discussing in class for the past two weeks. Kohn talks about telling Fortune 500 companies to pay their employees well pay them fair and then try and get them to forget about their pay in general. It’s a good idea but extraordinarily difficult to do. Corporate America is built upon competition.

            The problem isn’t with the teachers, although some should be thrown out. The problem is with the system of education currently in use in the United States. We are not Chinese, Japanese, Swedes or Scots; we are Americans trying to do best by our children and students. Pitting our students against students of other countries is nonsense. Our responsibility is to help students’ acquire the problem solving skills that life will demand of them. Our responsibility is not to make them proficient at filling in the dots.

Kohn, A. (2003, September) Education Week: The Folly of Merit Pay. Retrieved from http://www.alfiekohn.org