Merit pay for teachers Paul Frijters

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Merit pay for teachers?Paul Frijters
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Some basic facts about teaching in Australia

• There are some 114,000 primary school teachers in
  Australia, of which 1/4th is outside the
  government sector.
• There are some 110,000 secondary school teachers
  in Australia, of which a little over a 1/3rd is
  in the non-government sector.
• As a total, teachers comprise of about 2.5 of
  the total number of workers in Australia, earning
  some 2 of the overall wage bill (close to 13
  billion dollars per year).
• Theres no particularly great shortage of
  teachers (unlike, say, nursing).

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Recent trends
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Who now enters?
Using state and time variation, Andrew Leigh
estimates it would take about a 20 wage rise to
make teaching an average profession (i.e. where
the density is flat).
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Note the percentage female is the same for
private schools.
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International evidence

• Frijters, Shields and Wheatley-Price estimate
  that the effect of changing pay scales on teacher
  retention is negligible. Their data comprises of
  teachers in the UK and they find its not the case
  that those who could earn more outside teaching
  are more likely to leave teaching once youre
  in, youre in.
• Combined with Andrew Leighs results, this means
  teacher pay affects new entry, not exits.

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How do you get paid as an Australian teacher?

• New South Wales
• Teachers in New South Wales are currently among
  the best paid in Australia. In 2003 the salaries
  for teachers in NSW government schools were
• Starting salary 4-year trained (eg BEd) 41,109
  
• Starting salary 5-year trained (eg BEd BA, BEd
  BSc, BA MTeach, BSc MTeach) 43,225
• Top of teacher salary scale (Step 13) 58,692
• Head teacher i.e. subject head 66,534
• Deputy Principal from 64,977 to 76,923
• Principal from 77,915 to 95,101

Bottom line relatively high starting salary,
followed by relatively flat scales, based
solely on years on the job. Notice that the
higher paid echelons teach less (i.e. they are
rewarded for admin, not for good teaching.
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Private schools?

• Catholic schools have pay scales too.
• Private schools often have their own pay scales,
  hence there too merit pay is rare.
• What private schools do have is more flexibility
  in hiring and firing and will pay higher salary
  levels (attracting the better teachers).

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Problems with current system

• Lower quality entrants disappearance of the male
  teachers no reward for teaching well or
  punishment for teaching badly.

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Why Pay Teachers Moreby Alex Stanley

• Federal education minister Juile Bishop "I'm not
  talking about pay cuts. I'm talking about a
  differential in salaries."
• An example of teachers union claims "It's not
  about rewarding teachers for quality teaching,
  it's about cutting the pay of some teachers.
• In a corporation, management is paid bonuses and
  given call options to align their interests with
  shareholders. It makes perfect economic sense to
  align the interests of teachers to the learning
  outcomes of students, with merit based pay.

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Evidence

• How and Why has Teacher Quality Changed in
  Australia (Leigh and Ryan, 2006)
• A decrease in teacher pay and an increase in the
  pay differentials in non-teaching occupations
  explain the decline in academic aptitude of
  teachers in the last 20 years. This is the
  general trend over time.
• The teachers own aptitude in teacher tests and
  the selectivity of teacher college, positively
  relate to the performance of the students that
  the teacher eventually teaches.
• To attract better teachers and increase the
  aptitude of students, an incentive scheme should
  be offered to new entrants in the profession.
  Start better teaching graduates on more money.
• This way, the more motivated and more effective
  teachers will have a competitive advantage in
  employment. This will provide greater incentive
  for education students to perform better at
  university and learn to do their future job
  better.

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Evidence

• Leigh and Ryan also show that increasing the pay
  of teachers, or potential pay, will increase the
  quality of entrants choosing teaching as a
  career.
• More talented individuals have never been paid
  more in teaching. From 1983-2003, the aptitude of
  teachers has declined. While deregulation has
  provided incentives for talented people in other
  industries over this period, the union has
  exerted their influence to reject merit schemes.
• This lack of incentive for talented individuals
  to enter teaching in the first place is a very
  damaging finding for Joshs case.

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Evidence

• In a more recent paper, Leigh attempts to answer
  the question does raising starting salary
  improve the quality of teachers?
• The results suggest that a 10 percent increase in
  starting teacher pay (holding other graduate
  salaries constant) would raise the typical
  teaching student 6 percentiles in university
  aptitude distributions.

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Evidence

• Figlio and Kenny (2006) is an American paper that
  examines the performance of merit pay.
• They find that test scores are significantly
  higher in schools that offer individual financial
  incentives for good performance by teachers.

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Policy

• Remove bargaining power of teachers union.
  Teachers sign up to individual workplace
  agreements.
• Give new graduates in the profession the chance
  to negotiate higher starting salaries
  commensurate with their perceived potential.
• New, flexible agreements negotiated on the basis
  of past performance, rather than just on years of
  experience.

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Policy

• Teachers employed by individual agreement with
  their school/university.
• Teachers only set interim assessment.
• Final assessment, where performance affects merit
  pay, is set independently.
• By state government in school and by other,
  senior academics at university.
• This will sort the good teachers from the bad.

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Merit Pay Good Teachers
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Merit Pay for Teachers

• Arguing the disadvantages
• Josh Yeo

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Introduction

• Background of merit pay system
• principals would be given more power to pay
  teachers according to how much they contribute to
  students' results, rather than years of service
  and experience.
• new merit-pay scheme will be implemented as early
  as 2009
• assesses teachers on a range of criteria,
  including the academic performance of their
  pupils feedback from students and parents and
  the attainment of higher academic and
  professional standards through greater levels of
  professional development.

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• Carol Chambers, head teacher at a Tweed Valley
  High School offering carrots for people to jump
  through hoops devalues the system

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Teaching to the test

• Merit pay system might result in teachers trying
  to play to the system
• Bishop's suggestion that students be given a shot
  at marking their teachers -
• Merit pay drives teachers to engage in populist
  teaching strategies (Sydney Morning Herald 2007)
• Teachers catering to the demands and popularity
  among students
• Shift in balance of power from teacher to
  students
• Ingvarson (Australian Council for Educational
  Research) counsels against teachers being paid
  on the basis of performance

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You cant measure teaching quality!

• On average, the certification status of a
  teacher has, at most, small impacts on student
  test performance - US National Bureau of
  Economic Research paper led by a Harvard
  economics professor, Thomas Kane.
• Ingvarson The ability of parents to assess
  teachers is "untested", while principals are "the
  least reliable" because they all judge teachers
  differently.
• Hard to measure quality of teaching difficult to
  properly assess the performance of Australia's
  250,000 public school teachers Australian
  Education Union president Pat Byrne

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Breakdown of traditional teaching values

• When teachers hear "merit" they tend to hear an
  implication that their work is unworthy.
• Virtually impossible to place a dollar value on
  quality of teaching
• Merit pay system invites greed and competition
  into what should be a reflective and collegial
  environment.
• Problem with performance pay is that it implies
  that teachers are motivated by money

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You cant argue with history

• History shows that most attempts to introduce
  merit-pay schemes to schools have been
  short-lived.
• 19th century attempts at merit-pay schemes failed
  due to discredit
• the fact that teachers found ways to subvert the
  system, much to the detriment of their students
• Teachers would study in detail the questions
  asked by visiting inspectors, and narrow their
  curriculum to focus on the subjects that were
  going to be tested,
• Ingvarson average shelf life of each program is
  about four years

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Divisive nature of the merit pay system(Among
teachers, students, parents, administration)

• Federal Labor education spokesman Stephen Smith
  the performance-pay proposal would further dent
  teacher morale.
• Discourages teachers from working together
• "When we create a teaching plan that we think is
  really good, we often put it in each others'
  pigeonholes, or we send around emails and allow
  each other to use or modify our ideas. But if we
  start to compete with each other for more money,
  then that collaborative approach may change and
  it may be detrimental to the students. It's messy
  and divisive," Balwyn High School teacher Marita
  Tripp
• Houston case example

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Case example

• Houston, Texas (Jan 2007)
• 8000 teachers received bonus cheques from a US14
  million merit pool as part of the district's
  biggest-ever performance pay scheme.
• The reaction was as contentious as it was
  divisive. Parents wanted to know what their
  child's teacher was worth - and demanded
  explanations if they didn't like the answer.
• Teachers who didn't get as much as their peers
  felt humiliated and demoralised
• Within schools, jealousy bred between colleagues.

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Alternatives to merit pay system

• Sue Willis, president of the Australian Council
  for the Deans of Education Different kind of
  salary structure
• incentives for highly skilled teachers and
  experienced teachers to continue to teach
• governments should invest more money in widening
  the salary gap between beginning and experienced
  teachers
• Current salary structure does not allow a steep
  enough curve
• compared to other countries in the OECD teachers
  in Australia start reasonably well off, but don't
  improve in their salary like the rest of the
  world

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Questions?

• Ask the prof!