Not long ago, I wrote about the ridiculous Florida Best & Brightest Scholarship Program, which has doled out millions of dollars in bonus money to teachers who got a high score on a college entrance exam they took long before they were even teachers. There's also performance pay, which ties teacher salaries to student test scores. No other public servants get paid like this. We don't pay cops based on how well they did in high school or how many criminals they arrest. Firefighters get paid even when the house burns down, and they don’t get a bonus for every kitten they rescue from a tree. So, the question is, how should teachers get paid?
For starters, like the aforementioned cops and firefighters, teachers perform a vital service for the community. Therefore, rookie teachers should count on a decent salary from the beginning of their career. Nobody goes into teaching to get rich, but a reasonable starting salary should be one that's significantly above the median salary in the particular school district. When it comes to salary increases, nothing helps teachers become better quite like good old-fashioned experience. However, teacher salaries should be based on other factors as well.
Teachers who earn additional teaching-related degrees and certificates are gaining the knowledge necessary to become better teachers, so they should earn more money. For example, a high school social sciences teacher with a master’s degree in economics should get paid more than a like teacher who doesn’t possess such a degree. Simply put, the more degrees and certifications teachers get related to their field, the more money they should make.
Teachers can also get better by participating in professional development workshops. These courses give teachers valuable knowledge that they can immediately apply in the classroom for the direct benefit of their students. Perhaps this is an area where a bonus system would actually make sense; the more professional development workshops teachers attend, the more they get paid. And teachers who actually lead workshops and help disseminate information to other teachers can get even bigger bonuses.
What about the "performance pay" system that ties teacher salaries to student test scores? On the surface, this may seem like a good idea, but we run into serious problems when it comes to equity and fairness. To illustrate, I currently teach both regular and advanced Language Arts classes. Although I’m the same teacher teaching the same standards to both groups, my advanced students routinely outperform my regular students in both grades and test scores. Does that mean I’m the Jekyll and Hyde of education? Am I a genius teacher with one group of students and a bungling fool with the other? Of course not. Student success ultimately comes from the student, not the teacher. So why tie teachers' salaries to something they have little or no control over?
When it comes to teacher salaries, like with most things, the best approach is simplicity and common sense. Instead of using complex formulas or arbitrary guidelines as criteria, we should reward teachers who improve by accumulating experience, acquiring teaching-related higher education degrees and certifications, and participating in professional development. This will help teachers teach better and lift up all students, rather than having the weight and pressure of student test scores dragging both teachers and students down.
