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Home | News & Research | Research | The Pros and Cons of Performance-Based Compensation

"The Pros and Cons of Performance-Based Compensation," Lewis C Solomon and Michael Podgursky, Milken Family Foundation.

http://www.mff.org/conf2000/conf2000.taf?page=confpub

Date of Study:
2000
Basis of Study:
The Pros and Cons of Performance-Based Compensation compiles and analyzes the current and historical criticisms of performance-based compensation in K-12 education. Lewis C. Solomon and Michael Podgursky believe that new compensation methods are not only feasible, but necessary in order to attract the best and the brightest into the teaching profession, keep the most effective of these in teaching, and motivate all teachers.
Focus of Study:
Solomon and Podgursky respond to the most common criticisms of performance-based compensation from fifty distinguished educators:
  1. Performance-based compensation programs encourage competition rather than collaboration among teachers.
  2. The union environment and the collaborative nature of teaching won't work.
  3. What is merit based upon?
  4. If student learning is the sole basis of the merit evaluation, relying on test scores can present major problems.
  5. When you reward teachers for student achievement, nobody wants to teach certain kids in certain communities.
  6. Biased administrators and favoritism would only strengthen the good old boy network.
  7. Performance-based compensation will take from teachers the ability to teach as they wish and as they do best.
  8. Performance-based compensation programs reward the top 15-20 percent of performers without making any effort to improve all teachers.
  9. The costs of implementing a performance-based compensation system are very large.
  10. Teachers should want to teach to serve kids, not for money. We want teachers who love teaching, and who are not in it for the money.
  11. Performance-based compensation forces teachers to work harder to get more pay—but the extra pay is not sufficient for the extra work required.
  12. If the names of those who receive performance-based compensation are posted, parents might be upset if they disagree with the choices.
  13. Can we really compare education to business?
  14. Performance-based compensation cannot be imposed from the outside.
  15. People are too critical of education—it is actually doing fine, so why rock the boat by changing things.
    16.
Conclusion:
Virtually all of the objections can be dealt with. In some cases, assumptions underlying the dislike of performance-based compensation must be challenged - other objections require some changes in the way schools operate.


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