Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D.
Let’s face the truth. The public school system in this country (including North Carolina) is not meeting reasonable expectations. For example, recent reports show that nationally reading proficiency is being met by less than 40% of students in public schools: 4th grade, 31%; 8THgrade, 30%; and 12th grade, 37%. The results for basic math proficiency are equally discouraging. This in spite of the cost per student of public education in this country being one of the highest, if not the absolute highest, of any other country, at a shocking average of $17,187 per year. With, say an average of 20 students per class, the cost is $242,740 per class per year. I would be happy to sign up as a tutor for that kind of pay. Proficiency in reading is such a basic and fundamental component of education; that overall educational achievement, must be profoundly negatively affected. Another shocking statistic is that of the approximate 10 million staff working in public education in the United States, less than 50% are teachers!
There are only two possible explanations for the poor performance: either the people in charge of public education in this country, do not know how to teach or are not motivated to ensure that effective teaching practices are being followed. Obviously, there is no effective accountability in the public school system, and throwing more money at the problem will not fix it. No private business could afford to operate this way, unless like the public schools, they had no effective competition.
The NC General Assembly will be considering a bill this session that is designed to increase teacher pay. While increasing pay may be positive for teacher recruitment and retention; the question is, will it improve the academic performance of the students, which of course should be the main objective? Here is where the concept or meritocracy enters the picture. Should pay increases be granted to existing teachers across the board, or rather, depend on the teacher’s effectiveness instructing their students? Most private businesses award pay increases and bonuses based on an employee’s demonstrated ability to do their job. When I first started working for the N.C. Department of Correction in the 1970s under Republican Governor James Holshouser, supervisors could only grant pay increases to a percentage of their employees and were required to rank order the employees based on job performance. When Democrat Governor Jim Hunt was elected that system of awarding pay increases based on merit was eliminated and replaced by across-the-board salary increases. Supervisors were no longer able to reward their employees according to their work performance.
Human nature being what it is, workers are much more likely to be motivated to do a good job if their pay depends on their performance. Actually, the school system could easily initiate a performance-based pay system since student learning is assessed using standardized tests. Any fair system would have to take into account the existing differences between students’ proficiency. This could easily be done by testing all students at the beginning of the school year and then using year end testing to evaluate their level of improvement. This difference would provide a reliable measure of the effectiveness of individual teachers and serve as the basis for salary/bonus increases. Such a system would encourage teachers to improve their own teaching skills as well as experiment with new instructional techniques. Not only would the teachers be accountable and rewarded for their performance, but school principals and administrators could be evaluated in a similar fashion.
Accountability and rewarding the effort and effectiveness of teachers is critical to improving a public school system that should not be allowed to continue failing.