Cause And Effect Essay: The Negative Effects Of Merit Pay In Schools

Imagine this: you're a teacher at a very prestigious school, with an exceptional group of students. Your students try their hardest, but some subjects of the curriculum are more difficult than others. Most kids do well on the tests, with a few slipping through the cracks, and the only thought you have is, “how will this affect my paycheck?” Merit pay, according to google, is the raise in pay based on a set of criteria set by the employer. Merit pay is nothing but pernicious to not only the teacher, but the student and school as well. Pay for performance leads to no improvement in teaching by stripping teachers of their motivation to teach. It also leads to a narrower curriculum and ultimately more test prep and money. Additionally, it ultimately leads to corrupt incidences, such as the situations in Atlanta, North Carolina and New York. One reason merit pay is ineffective is it does not increase teacher performance. When asked how to raise their effectiveness, teachers replied with a smaller class size, not merit pay (Parents Across America). This shows merit pay is, according to teachers, ineffective or even detrimental because it would not
School employees may try to tamper with test scores to obtain a higher salary. This validates the fact that merit pay leads to negative effects because it can lead to lying and cheating. One example of merit pay gone wrong is Atlanta Public School in Atlanta, Georgia. Authorities at the school were accused of lying and misgrading tests to increase the amount of money on their paycheck. This confirms merit pay leads to negative effects because it shows one possible outcome of merit pay, cheating to gain more money. More than eight teachers were sentenced to jail time, with a ending fine of $1000 and 1000 hours of backbreaking community service (CNN). This verifies merit pay leads to negative effects because it lead to a detrimental outcome for these school