Measuring performance...

The governor of Ohio signed a new merit pay law on March 31. The bill provides merit-pay bonuses for effective teachers, while poorly performing teachers will not be able to renew their contracts.

Although we are very excited that another state has adopted a merit pay scheme, we are also troubled by one aspect of the law. According to the bill, teacher performance will be measured by “in-class observations and class performance on a yet-to-be-developed test.” The test doesn't have to be developed until July 1, 2012, over a year from now. The article can be found here.

One of the reasons why even wonderful teachers are uncomfortable with a merit pay scheme is because they don’t know how they will be evaluated. Replacing a dependable tenure system with an uncertain and “yet-to-be-developed-test” is understandably concerning for America’s teachers. Passing merit pay laws without a clear sense of how they will be implemented is ultimately unfair. And in order for teachers to support this policy, they need to be evaluated fairly and transparently.

Of course, this is easier said than done. The most challenging aspect of the merit pay debate is how to measure teacher performance. Unlike in the business world, where an objective metric like profits can easily determine who is successful in their career, the education world is not so simple. There are countless challenges in the classroom that vary among regions, schools, and individual students. There is no easy way to measure a teacher’s competence. Standardized tests, for instance, have a lot to do with a student’s home life, individual intellect, and previous educational background.

That is not to say, however, that measuring performance isn't possible. Other professions also struggle with objective evaluation but still manage to create standards and reward competence. The key to solving this issue is combining many forms of evaluation and using them comprehensively and consistently to measure teacher performance.

This is a major issue that districts and states should work out before passing merit pay legislation. It is unfair to teachers when governments ask them to accept a new policy without even specifying what that policy entails. Several districts and states have figured out evaluation systems that are working so far. Those systems will the subject of future posts, but it is important to create a fair evaluation scheme before passing merit pay legislation.