Congressman Urges Merit Pay for Teachers

A key U.S. congressman has proposed the next version of the federal No Child Left Behind education law include a merit system for teachers’ pay.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, has proposed a pay-for-performance system for teachers in high-poverty schools, and his proposal has gained support from congressional Republicans and U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, Stateline.org reported Tuesday.

Supporters of the plan have said it would encourage teachers to increase the quality of students’ work and would be a beneficial addition to the education law, which penalizes schools that do not record yearly improvement on standardized test scores.

However, Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, said the plan could cost Miller the support of education unions for the latest version of No Child Left Behind. He said the unions believe merit pay relies too heavily on tests that may not always reflect the quality of teaching received by the students.

There is absolutely a fallacy that is perpetuated about the sanctity of these tests, said Barnett Berry, president of the non-profit Center for Teaching Quality Inc. We would not pay a doctor solely on the basis of his or her mortality rates, would we? But we’re thinking of paying a teacher more or less based on test scores independent of other data sources?