Teacher Incentives

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2010


There are so many reasons incentive pay, or merit pay, simply does not work in public schools that it is difficult to know where to start the discussion. I will begin with some underlying assumptions that seem to drive this discourse:

First assumption: Money motivates. In many cases this appears to be true. As we recover from the recession it is pretty clear that the desire for more money helped drive financial institution decision making, leading us to the brink. It is also clear that if I offer the neighbor boy $25 to mow the grass and hint at an additional $10 if he sweeps the clippings afterward, I am likely to shell out $35 bucks. Clearly, the opportunity to earn money motivates many. This free blogging website allows me to "monetize" my postings, which as you can see, good and faithful reader, I have chosen not to do.

Most of the really grand things I do in life are not to earn a buck. I love family, care for friends, attend church, read, learn, etc., out of a love of life and the emotional return I receive. Offer me money to love my family and I will be offended. Offer me money to attend church and I will be offended. Offer me money to teach the kids in my charge better than I already teach them, and I will be offended. Highly. I do not base the quality of my effort in the classroom on a possible financial perk somewhere down the line. Yes, I want a paycheck for my efforts, and yes, if you want to raise my paycheck this year that is great with me. But, do not imply that I am somehow performing as a teacher at some rate lower than my best possible effort for kids by offering me additional money if I somehow work harder or produce more learning. In fact, if I entered this profession to make a lot of money I probably am removed enough from reality that I should not be exposed to children. I entered this profession for host of reasons, but it was clear to me from the get-go that I would not retire wealthy in a financial sense. I have retired wealthy in so many other ways, ways that cannot be bought and paid for.

Second assumption: Schools are like factories. Sadly, too much of this assumption is true. We still structure schools like factories, group our kids by age, move them from one room to another at the toot of a whistle, and organize production along separate component parts designated by unreal topics such as "math", "science", "history" and "language arts" as though reality comes at us compartmentalized. It does not, and schools structured in this traditional turn-of-the-last-century thinking are clearly the norm.

But, teachers are not assembly line workers. Unlike Lucy in the Chocolate Factory, we cannot simply work faster and harder with the hopes of earning more money. It is true that we teach kids to the best of our potential, not theirs, but a monetary incentive to improve our own instructional potential belies the reason we show up for work each day.

The kids that need the best teachers are the least likely to earn their mentors an incentive anyway. But that merits an additional posting. For now, if you believe teachers somehow would perform better if you offered them a reward based on their students' academic performance, then try that theory out with your husband or wife, your preacher or therapist, or the cop that stops you for speeding. Perhaps even better, offer it the doctor in the emergency room on the assumption he or she might attempt to save more lives if you gave them a tip. Incentives do not work everywhere, all the time for everyone. 180 days in a classroom with 20 kids for 7 hours each day is not the setting for financial incentives. A classroom is the setting for heart-inspired, undying labors of love for a future that cannot be seen or measured, but can only be imagined. That's what motivates teachers.

A functioning copy machine and chocolate at faculty meetings really helps, though.