Teacher Performance Pay, a Good or Bad Idea?

Is the above comic the reality of teacher performance pay? I feel like something that should be clarified from the last post is the idea of teacher performance pay. The issue is always a huge debate amongst educators and politicians. Also, considering the last post mentions that under the Race to The Top Program, student evaluation will be used in teacher pay, it is something that should be noted.

Ellen R. Delisio from Education World did a great post on teacher performance pay. Currently the teacher pay system is based on years rather than on student evaluations. Have you ever heard of tenure? In this system, there are a set standards on bonuses. Under a teacher performance plan, the pay would be based upon the performance of the students. The desired outcome of the whole situation would be more hard working teachers and a competitive field with better paid teachers, which some say would attract more people to the teaching field.

However, the thing that causes controversy is the idea that student performance will essentially grade the teacher. Will it be the state tests that evaluate the students or will it be something else? For the districts that have teacher performance pay, most use "student test scores, teacher evaluations, teachers who teach in hard-to-staff schools and subjects, and professional development" are factors for evaluating different teachers as Vaishali Honawar from the Washington Times said.

So what is stopping people from doing this? Well, it has to do with the before mentioned controversy, but also the cost of an overhaul of the old system. Some say the whole process would be too costly considering new evaluation methods would need to be made such as tests and observers to pay for. It would be "a complicated situation."

Maybe. Many states are going along with it to compete for the Race to The Top Program. Although there still is no hard data saying teacher performance pay is linked to higher test scores and closing the achievement gap, many schools will see a change in salaries, for the better or worse.