EDUCATORS & PERFORMANCE BASED PAY

The problem with "performance/incentive based pay" in education is that you are totally reliant upon the ability of students as the student outcomes are the only thing measurable. Teacher effort is unmeasurable. Which group of teachers will want to take the dumber kids who cannot achieve much regarding "performance" ? Every teacher will want to take the smarter kids who achieve "performance' far easier. Measuring a teacher upon student outcomes is plain silly. A teacher can only do so much with a student with multiple educational disabilities.

Why don't doctors have "performance/incentive based pay"? Exactly the same problem as with teachers. Which doctor will want to treat incurable diseases in patients if they are only paid when a patient is cured? Doctors would only be treating patients with diseases that they were absolutely sure they could cure.

Likewise, which politician would like "performance/incentive based pay" as voted by the community? If political decisions were only paid on value as perceived by the community, how many people would want to be politicians?

The business model does not work for a number of different professions. It's flaw is that it assumes a factory assembly line where all things can be measured equally. It is a wrong assumption but favoured by conservatives who value money over people in their economic rationalist worldview.

See

Merit Pay for Teachers: A Poor Prescription for Reform

Harvard Educational Review

http://her.hepg.org/content/36264448513xp4t5/