Merit Pay Hypothesis

In the article the authors explain the different hypotheses behind merit pay, along with the Principle Agent Model to show why merit pay in public schools is so rare. The “nature of teaching” hypothesis states how difficult it is to evaluate a teacher. This hypothesis shows that the likelihood of merit pay working in public school very inconceivable, do to all the other factors that affect public school curriculum, like focusing on a topic for longer then the curriculum states should spent on a topic. On the contrary the ”political cost” hypothesis insists that there is nothing ingrained in teaching that makes merit pay not work. The hypothesis uses the statistics for merit pay in private schools to the statics of merit pay in public to back up the statement that merit pay can most certainly work in public schools. This information shows that the merit pay system most definitely works in public schools despite the fact that it is rarely used.
1. Ramirez, A. (2001). How Merit Pay Undermines Education. Educational Leadership, 58(5), 16-20.
While one would think it is based on a teacher going above and beyond on with students actives or something benefiting students more then teachers. Although more often than not it is based on students achieving higher scores on standardized testing. Merit pay systems today care more about students achievement and their success that the teacher has with them, while not taking into account veteran teachers who have impacted and succeeded more students in the past then the new teachers who only produce students who can pass standardized testing with high scores. Looking at this side and opinion of the merit pay system really opens my eyes to how the system works and how some view it. True teaching shouldn’t be judged off of test scores, it should be based off of bettering the students as a whole, to receive merit