Merit Pay – Public Forum Debate – Con

1.  Teachers will encourage cheating

When debating this resolution, it is essential to remember that not all teachers will follow ‘the honor system’.  In fact, when it comes down to how large their salary is, teachers become more and more tempted to encourage students to cheat, or even alter grades to improve how well they are paid.  Steven D. Levitt, a Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, conducted a study that proved that dozens of teachers in the Chicago School District who were involved in a merit pay program altered test scores to influence their salaries.  This study raises some important questions:  If merit pay is introduced on a national level, how many more times could this happen again?  When it comes down to how much teachers are being paid, do you really think they’d care if some of their students received higher grades than what they earned?  Moreover, why should we revert to a system that will only hurt us in the long run?

2.  Merit pay will hurt the curriculum and teaching

Henry Aubin, a reporter from the Montreal Gazette, said that “Merit is hard to define.  If principals decide who’s worthy, there’s a risk of arbitrariness and favoritism.  Staff morale will suffer if subservience defines merit.  If the criteria for merit are students’ scores on standardized tests, many teachers might well focus on test preparation.  The teaching that often ignites students’ intellectual curiosity, however, often deals with material that testing does not cover.”  What Aubin is saying is that teachers will only focus on teaching what defines “student achievement”.  So if that happens to be standardized tests, teachers will mainly focus on teaching the material that they cover in order to raise their salary.  Another thing that Aubin mentions is that if principals decide who deserves an increase in their pay, teachers will focus on teaching what the principal thinks needs to be taught, and the teachers that do not receive in increase in pay will be demoralized and discouraged.  Isn’t there enough of that already?

3.  Merit pay punishes teachers for uncontrollable factors

In every school there are kids that don’t take it seriously, kids that are in a special education program, and even kids that rarely come to school.  Teachers that teach these students will likely not receive merit pay because of the kids they teach, which is something they cannot control.  How can you equalize the roster and compare a teacher of AP Calculus to a teacher with eight special education students?  Moreover, what if a teacher happens to be teaching a class that is half made up of students that rarely come to school?  Even if the regularly attending half of the class maintains an A+ average, that average will be dramatically lowered because of the students that don’t regularly attend.  Joseph Baca, a teacher who does not support merit pay, sums up this point with this quote:  “Public school teachers cannot pick and choose their students nor select the family systems they come from.  They cannot control the media influences, values and environments that students are exposed to 24/7.  These uncontrollable variables are beyond the scope of authority and not the responsibility of teachers.”