Students Don’t Benefit from Merit-Based Teaching

Wanted: Educators. Pay: Commission.          Graphic Dominique Côté

The principles of the free market can be handy. The invisible hand makes sure we’re not paying a few hundred bucks for something small—like a candy bar—and also that the work that goes into something big—like a Ferrari—is properly compensated.

However, those principles that can be applied somewhat easily to tangible goods get a little bit harder to apply when it comes to services. That’s why the recent proposal to base teacher’s pay on performance—the idea was put forth by Kevin Falcon, a contender for the leadership of the British Columbian Liberal party—is so troublesome.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Falcon was quoted as saying, “When you look at education … it is not how great your physical facilities are, it’s not how fantastic the technology in the classroom is. It is actually the teacher at the front of the classroom that is the best determinant of student outcomes.” As such, “teachers’ growth in income shouldn’t just be determined by how long they have been in a classroom, but by how well they are doing their job.”

On the surface, it’s a sentiment that makes sense. People who do a good job should get paid more than the shlubs who scrape by with the bare minimum, right? Unfortunately, when it comes to education, things are not that simple.

Falcon’s proposal assumes that a good teacher is one who gets their students to score well on standardized tests. It’s similar to parts of the American No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, in which public schools’ funding were tied to academic performance.

Critics have charged that the reliance on standardized testing as the measuring stick for students’ progress has been destructive on a few levels. Think back to when you were a kid, learning the first principles of math.

Odds are, you were taught that if you had two objects, and you were given two more, you could count out a new total that would equal four.

It’s a system that doesn’t teach you that the answer is four, but how to figure out for yourself that the answer is four. Critics charge that since teachers have a good idea of what will appear on standardized tests, they are less inclined to teach such esoteric concepts as deductive reasoning and lean more on teaching to the test—forcing memorization of answers likely to appear on an exam.

Paying teachers based on job performance is an intriguing idea. Who doesn’t like the idea that the best get the highest reward? Unfortunately, what defines a “good teacher” is subjective. Is it the teacher who inspires and changes lives? The one who makes their students comfortable in the classroom and piques their imaginations? Until there is an objective metric that can be used to quantify educators, merit-based pay should stay a purely academic idea.

This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 18, published January 11, 2011.