Incentive pay for teachers - it works in Ladue
The Post-Dispatch has an article today on the Ladue schools’ merit pay system, which has rewarded teachers who excel with better pay since 1953.
In Missouri, the concept seems to be similarly explosive. Rep. Allen Icet, R-Wildwood, introduced a bill this year to allow school districts to boost pay in subject areas where there are teacher shortages. Byron Clemons, vice president of the St. Louis teachers union, branded it a merit pay bill. The union, Clemons said, is strongly against merit pay because of its subjectivity. The bill is pending.
The union’s opposition to incentive pay has always been wrong. Why shouldn’t teachers who perform better get paid more than teachers who perform worse? This system has worked for decades in all other professions. The unions claim such systems are subjective, but Ladue’s system seems objective almost to a fault. of course, the merit pay issue is now intertwined with testing, which the teachers union also opposes.
Ladue has been using incentive pay for more than 50 years. Its students scored 58% above the state average in 2005 on the third grade CATS test in math and 77% above the state average in Communication Arts. The middle schoolers scored 100% better than the state average in math and 78% better in Communication Arts. The high schoolers were 112% above the state average in math and 68% above the state average in Communication Arts. What’s the problem again?
If the schools are ever to improve, there has to be accountability. Clearly, some teachers are bad teachers, and should be forced to get better. Equally, some teachers are excellent, and should be rewarded as such. Rep. Icet’s bill, HB 1151, is a good place to start.
