Consider merit

Everyone else does

Even when the Ledge isn’t in session, it’s in session. Or at least in meetings. Which may be another reason to vote against Issue 1 next month. But that’s another editorial or six.

Some of us were surprised to see another front-page photo and story about Arkansas lawmakers the other day. (Don’t they ever go home?) This time, lawmakers on the Education Committees were making recommendations about teacher pay.

The story said the committees were making recommendations to the Ledge, which meets again

(in full) come January.

And maybe early next year lawmakers will get around to giving raises to public school teachers. And maybe teacher pay could be raised by $4,000 next year. From a minimum of $36,000 to $40,000.

“This is just a recommendation,” says state Sen. Missy Irvin. “It could all change completely in January.”

So consider this past week to be early in the sausage-making. And the decision(s) will be made when the General Assembly is fully assembled.

But as long as the Ledge is considering recommendations . . . .

Why not consider merit pay? Almost everybody else does.

All these years later, we still haven’t heard a good argument against merit pay for public school teachers. We’ve heard arguments against, just not good ones. Here are a few that we’ve heard over the years, with considered editorial response:

• Merit pay wouldn’t increase the salaries of all teachers.

That’s a feature, not a bug. Not all butchers, bakers or candlestick makers are paid the same, either. The best ones tend to get the best salaries because their bosses want to keep the best ones around.

There should be a minimum salary for Arkansas teachers, sure. And the higher we push that floor, the more competitive we are with surrounding states. We’ll grant that. (And support that when those raises come up before the Ledge.)

But merit pay, or bonus pay, or pay-for-performance, or whatever it’s called this week, would reward those teachers who are the best at their jobs. As for the nigh-forever complaint that “I work hard!” from teachers who may very well do exactly that: We would work extremely hard to be an NFL tight end. That doesn’t mean we’d ever be good at it.

“Working hard” isn’t good enough if 25-30 students, every year, generation after generation, have to be sacrificed to a life without a fine education. When it comes to teaching, just like every other human endeavor, some people have it, some don’t.

We should encourage those who have it. Merit pay does that.

• Teachers at public schools don’t get to pick and choose their students, so some teachers will have more difficult, er, more “challenging” kids, depending on the year.

Agreed. But education experts have come up with a great development in education called Longitudinal Tracking: A kid is tested at the beginning of the year, and again at the end. The teacher is rewarded for improvement from test to test.

A disadvantaged kid or one who’s behind academically has more room to improve, and that can mean an even bigger bonus for the teacher. Once again, the best merit pay plans reward teachers for improving their kids, and don’t give bonuses by comparing one group of students to another.

• In a merit pay system, teachers will teach to the test!

We will have to assume that the teachers won’t be given specific test questions in advance. That would be cheating (and punishable). So the argument boils down to: Math teachers will teach math? And English teachers will teach English? If the test providers are asking the right questions, then the teachers probably will teach “to the test,” at least as much as they can. Parents should expect just that.

• Some teachers might hold off on sharing good ideas with other teachers and other schools.

That’s just insulting to teachers. Especially since the merit-pay systems we’ve seen don’t pit teachers against each other.

Here’s what is often overlooked about merit pay plans: They’re not simply an inducement for better performance, like bonuses in business and industry and government. (Although they are certainly that.) Merit pay plans are also a way to reshape the educational system on the basis of merit — on accomplishment by the kids and, at last, due recognition and proper appreciation for the best teachers.

The teachers we know and have known are every bit as human as the rest of us. And would enjoy being told when a job was well done.

Because merit pay requires a dependable system by which to measure success, teachers may have a reliable way of seeing which of their methods work, and which don’t. This kind of reform cuts down on guesswork. It validates the work of the best teachers and wakes up the less than best, who may not even have realized that there are better ways to teach.

The General Assembly, once assembled, could take great steps in this direction. If it only would. And if it believes, as we do, that teachers are people, too.