Bill’s merit pay idea isn’t best solution

Hidden within HB2, the budget bill now under consideration in our state Senate throws $3 million into a merit pay program based on proven failed policies.

The funding language is so vague and misleading; it gives legislators little information about how the program would work. Merit pay is in the same budget line with supports for advanced placement participation by teachers, thus eroding accountability.

New Mexico’s state equalization guarantee mechanism for funding local districts is eroded by this bill. HB2 budget calls for “incentives” to be tied directly to a new evaluation system which has yet to be developed.

The $3 million is much better distributed to all districts through the equalization guarantee. Perhaps it could replace half of the $6 million stripped from the bill for student’s instructional materials by the House Appropriation and Finance Committee.

While basing pay on performance appears to be common sense, and it may be beneficial in other sectors, the evidence paints a different picture in the education field.

A newly released report shows that merit pay programs that reward teachers based on their students’ standardized test scores do little to improve student achievement or attract and retain good teachers because they don’t address what teachers care most about.

“What most teachers desire is the know-how to teach their subjects as well as the autonomy and supports to best meet the needs of their students,” according to the report by Barnett Berry, president of the Center for Teaching Quality, and Jonathan Eckert, an education professor at Wheaton College in Illinois.

Merit pay’s failure to impact student learning or retain good teachers is noted in several examples, including programs in Nashville and New York City. A voluntary merit pay program in Nashville that provided up to $15,000 in bonuses for teachers had littleto-no impact on student performance. The program didn’t help retain teachers, either: About half of the teachers who volunteered for the program left within three years. Pay incentives also failed to improve student performance, despite a $56 million merit pay program in New York City.

Effectively addressing the conditions that the best teachers want and need will go a long way toward supporting their professional activities and retaining them — particularly in high-need schools, according to the report.

New Mexico should focus on the conditions that improve effective teaching, including:

Support collaboration rather than false competition for merit pay.

Specialized resources for high-need schools, students and subjects.

Fill teaching and teaching assistant positions eliminated by recent cuts. Lower class size. Adequate funding for special education.

Increased support for early childhood education.

Safe, well-maintained school buildings.

Before policy makers rush to spend taxpayer dollars on trendy ideas, they need to understand what works and what doesn’t — and merit pay doesn’t.

Pol icymakers should embrace real solutions to attract, retain and develop talented teachers so our children can succeed in college and the workplace. Our children deserve nothing less than policies that actually do work.