Merit Pay, Teacher Pay, and Value Added Measures

Value added measures sound fair, but they are not. In this video Prof. Daniel Willingham describes six problems (some conceptual, some statistical) with evaluating teachers by comparing student achievement in the fall and in the spring.

• Category

  Education

[ThexKoandaxBears]

You forgot to include the socio-economic differences kids experience that impact test scores. Some students have parents who set a regular homework time and work with them. Other students have parents who are at work all evening and can't help. Still others have parents who don't set a premium on education. All these factor in to the students testing results. Students who refuse to read the test and just click on answers must be factored into the equation also.

[Daniel Willingham]

A successful value added model would account for this. . . you can not only account for change scores over the year, you can account for the typical change score for a particular child. . .so the child with parents who are not supportive will typically have had low change scores by the time they get to fifth grade, for example. But this does assume that change scores will be stable in the child, and if they differ in a particular year, it's because of the teacher

[Brooke Valentine]

So what I don't understand is why spend so much time and energy talking about what WON"T work and WHY you don't like it in this video? I love how a lot of the comments here begin to talk about Merit pay that will work ~ It seems everyone is on the same page that we need a a way to Reward and encourage teachers who are good at their jobs and help the teachers that are not so great either become great or move on to another profession.

[Daniel Willingham]

I talk about it because this is the idea that is on the table and it has a surface plausibility. I'm not against merit pay, but I don't think a lack of merit pay is one of the more significant problems in education right now, so I don't think it will change things all that much.

[TMaroo]

Welcome to the real world. All of us in our jobs are evaluated and paid based on merits in some way. Its not always perfectly fair. How unfair is it for a student that gets a poor teacher? At least if there is merit pay, over the long haul, variables typically even out and the true talent of the teacher is revealed. When merit pay is used, its an incentive to perform better. If I was a good teacher, I'd want to show it versus being lumped in the same bucket with every under-performing teacher.

[Daniel Willingham]

There's more at stake her than just whether or not teachers like it. If you put unfair merit pay into the system it' going to anger teachers. . .and you're more likely to lose good teachers (who have other options) than poor teachers (who don't).

[Alison Iredale]

Another response is that job evaluation is about surveillance and control. It has little positive correlation with increased productivity and quality. Short term increases are nearly always transitory, being based on the Hawthorne effect. Teachers are not 'producing' or 'delivering', they are serving, supporting, facilitating and inspiring. Let's reject the managerialist discourse which has us down as operatives on a widget conveyor belt and reclaim the territory of teaching.

[Cynthia Miller]

Thanks. I liked it. Short and sweet. And I firmly believe that what works is still up in the air, since we are on the fourth cohort of TIF and there is still not BEST PRACTICES out there on what works!

[slmUSA]

Ugh. Common theme is The TEST. Why do we only look at the elephant's tail, or ears, or trunk, or sides? It's like the Three Blind Men and the Elephant. Did anyone focus on the part in the video where he spoke about long-term, broad content necessary for good reading? Short-term teaching to the test leaves holes in kids' educations. When the assessment tool becomes the GOAL, it is no longer valid as an assessment tool.

[Paula McGirr]

To TMaroo: Where did you hear this? "At least if there is merit pay, over the long haul, variables typically even out and the true talent of the teacher is revealed." Wrong - If I teach in an affluent district for 25 years and my friend works in a rural or urban district for the same amount of time, the variables between our classes will never even out. Are you a teacher? It doesn't sound like you have had much classroom experience if you are.

Thank you Prof. Willingham - well crafted video.

[robin33547]

#7 Teachers who teach subjects not tested (example: 3rd grade writing teachers) will be evaluated on their student's Math test scores, even though they are not even allowed to teach Math.

[meri christensen]

isn't that what we pay administrators the big bucks for? they are the ppl that observe us, review our goals, mentor us, and at least in my school, meet with us at least 3 x per year. Why do we need another layer? Are administrators doing the job they get paid for? Maybe they are the prob. there was language in contracts to remove ineffective teachers, but u need an effective admin to pursue that end. I have seen it happen in several schools. i am sick of teacher bashing.

[mquantz13]

I'm a teacher and a graduate student in teacher education. The research says merit pay does not produce better student learning outcomes, but pits teachers against each other, when collaborative teaching DOES improve outcomes, and encourages teachers to teach to a standardized test rather than helping the students become life-long learners.

[jessrockker]

thats why TEACHERS would co-create the system. All of these cons can be applied to anything. OF COURSE there will be variables. You really wasted your energy.

[MsJanetWood]

A+

Great job!

Funny and informative at the same time!

[GordonWayneWatts]

You may be the only engineering teacher in YOUR hi school or college but you're NOT the only engineering teacher in the world! Therefore 2B fair U must B compared against yr peers. Now regarding two 30-minute observations by a principle alone: No,of course that's not sufficient 2B fair but several observations by SEVERAL observers & SEVERAL standardized tests AND student evaluations WITH corrections for your district's poverty level (which affects student performance) IS fair! Right?