More on Pay for Performance in Schools

As a follow-up to last week's post on "pay for performance" for NYC principals, I thought that this excerpt from a commentary on how to improve our public education system so we won't continue to "get our butts kicked in the marketplace" featured on The Future of Work was worth sharing:

Teachers.  Put 'em on commission.  Yep, you heard that right; in the real world out here we call it "pay for performance."  If you don't teach, and they don't learn, you don't get paid.  One more time: if you don't turn out graduates who are employable in the workplace of the future, you don't get rewarded (slightly serious side note: we know "pay for performance" in education is a whole lot easier to preach about than to make happen, but if we don't even try to move in that direction it's all over, end of game, and goodbye economy).

Now I assume that they're kidding about commissions (I believe commissions can be harmful even in some sales environment) , but not the larger point. Certainly paying for performance successfully is tough to do in any organization and, as the authors note above, presents particular challenges in a school system.  And certainly we must, as we always should, be on the lookout for the potential "unintended consequences" that could result from such a plan. 

I think the point is that as our schools (hopefully) evolve to help ensure that our children are able to compete in the 21st century, rewards cannot be off the table.  Well-conceived and implemented reward programs can reinforce important messages about how education must happen and, as in the case of the NYC principals, provide the opportunity for additional compensation to those who are willing to tackle and address some of the toughest and most entrenched issues.   

Comments

[http://almostgotit.wordpress.com]

Whew, what a tricky problem. As a parent, and as a member of a family of teachers/professors, I can certainly appreciate how complicated "merit pay" (though I'm generally for it) and "running schools like a business" (both a terrible and wonderful idea) can be. I also am alarmed, however, by the demonstrable erosion of American K-12 academic performance.
School vouchers are one interesting way of addressing this. Another might be to look into the British "cachement" system, with cachements being a more porous version of our school zones (e.g., in some cachement areas, families have more than one school to choose from). In some American school systems, the proliferation of private schools has actually prompted the public schools to better performance... although in others, of course, the private schools have pulled the wealthy students (or, perhaps more significantly, the students with motivated parents) out of the public schools. And we will always need good public schools, in part because there will always be families who cannot afford, or are not motivated enough, to provide any better alternatives for their children. The solutions (yes, we need several) need to involve all of us, and should cost all of us -- e.g., even those whose children are grown and gone still need well-educated doctors for their aging bodies, and well-educated lawyers to divide up their vast estates (boosted, often, by a timely move after retirement to a low-tax state with terrible schools!) Wow, Ann, you got me started here :0)

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AB - Yes... but you're very good when you get started! Thanks for sharing your thoughts - it is a complex problem (as all "systems") are, but one we all need focus on!

[Paul Hebert]

Rewards and incentives can work - once we get the base system working. Here's a link to a very interesting article on the Strategy+Business site from Booz Allen Hamilton. It is an interview with William Ouchi - and his take is that the system was designed in the 40s/50s with a much different goal and a much different world. Well worth the read.

http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/06212?pg=0

From the introduction of the article:

"...His 2003 book, Making Schools Work: A Revolutionary Plan to Get Your Children the Education They Need (Simon & Schuster), is based on in-depth study of the few large urban school systems that made consistent improvements in student test scores. The book identified seven elements common to good school systems: giving school principals local autonomy (as if the schools were business units), giving families a choice about which school they could send their children to, making schools accountable for student results, giving local schools control over their budgets, delegating authority as low as possible in the hierarchy, instilling a “burning focus on student achievement,” and setting up schools as “communities of learners,” where all the teachers figured out solutions together."

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AB - Thanks for the comment and the link to the article. I read through it - a very worthwhile read, detailing years of research on the types of changes that can improve public school performance.