...Merit pay, or pay-for-performance, is a bonus determined by an employee’s performance in a job (United States Department of Labor, 2016). Merit pay plans were developed as a part of the accountability movement sparked by the 1983 publication A Nation At Risk which discussed how American education was falling behind international countries such as Japan, and was solidified with the creation of No Child Left Behind in 2001, which created set standards in order to improve American public schools and the education students received. Administrators in schools use merit pay to incentivize teachers to remain in the profession and continue improving their skills through personal development programs. Pay is usually received based on students’ standardized...
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...Teacher Merit Pay Systems No matter how smart the student is, the efforts and quality of the school they are in, and the efforts and quality of the teacher that is instructing them has a very large influence on how well they will produce in school. If these factors have such a large influence on children’s ability to perform on standardized and non-standardized tests, both teachers and schools should be properly devoted to the children. This is where the idea of merit pay systems comes in. Merit pay systems reward the teachers with salary raises and reward schools with increased funds when their students do well or significantly improve. This process is made to encourage teachers to bring out the best in their students, and when they are properly influenced, it would seem that good results would be produced. The problem with merit pay systems in today’s schools, is that no one has found a “one size fits all” model for a merit pay system. Some systems have had success in some regions, while similar systems have failed in other regions. Merit systems have not worked in the past as well as they should have, this research paper will identify the failed programs, the problems behind those failed programs, the correct way to execute a merit pay system, and what the intended results can be if merit pay systems work to perfection. One of the first merit pay systems came about when British educators realized they needed to change the education system to yield better results. In his...
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...Running head: ACTION INQUIRY RESEARCH PAPER- MERIT PAY Action Inquiry Research Paper- School Finance Jennifer Ponton Grand Canyon EDA 535 July 01, 2012 Action Inquiry Research Paper- School Finance Statement of the Problem This past spring thousands of teachers protested at the Louisiana State Capital to prevent Louisiana lawmakers from passing an educational reform bill proposed by Governor Bobby Jindall that would change the face of public education in Louisiana forever. Many superintendents and school personnel were relieved of their professional responsibilities on the days they protested hoping that they could sway the governor and the lawmakers from passing the bill. The bill was passed even without the support of many educational leaders and lawmakers in Louisiana. The laws passed by Louisiana lawmakers read like a conservative education reformer’s wish list. Teacher tenure in Louisiana after three years of employment was eliminated and replaced with teachers receiving a “highly effective rating for five out of six consecutive years of teaching. Back to back “ineffective rating will result in a teacher being fired. Seniority will no longer be a dominant factor in layoff decisions. In fact most decisions involving teacher employment and pay will now be the responsibility of both the principal and the superintendent of school. Before Governor Jindall’s reform plan it was the responsibility of the local school board. The reform proposed by the governor...
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...Effects of Merit Pay on Job Satisfaction I should start out by mentioning the fact that no employee at the school corporation that I work for has received a raise in the last five years. Recently the school corporation has decided to give everyone a merit raise based on the previous year’s performance evaluation instead of employee tenure. I have heard many employees carrying on conversations with other staff members about how upset they are that the raise is based on past performance instead of how long they have been employed at the school corporation. This had led me to want to discover how merit pay affects a teacher’s job satisfaction. I am not a teacher however, I am the schools registrar and I will also receive my raise based on my previous year’s performance evaluation. It has always been my past experience that typically raises are based on performance no matter where I have worked. Using Evidence-based Human Resource as presented by Rousseau and Barends (2011) I will attempt to present my findings on how merit pay affects a teacher’s job satisfaction. Summary of Rousseau and Barends (2011) Article The article by Rousseau and Barends (2011), presents us with an overview of the decision-making process called Evidence-based Human Resource (EBHR). “EBHR is a decision-making process combining critical thinking with use of the best available scientific evidence and business information” (Rousseau & Barends, 2011). Rousseau and Barends (2011), maintain that Human...
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...Institution: Performance pay also called merit pay can be defined as a system that remunerates its employees in relation to an assessment of individual performance and how well one works. Such systems basically are meant to align employees’ individual effort to the goals and objectives of the organization. Hence it is a reward to individual employees whose tasks have been considered to be above the set standards of an organization or above average. In cases and situations where the output produced or sales produced by an employee are hard or difficult to be empirically determined, performance pay is most applicable; for examples in the teaching profession. In cases of performance payment, individual performance is usually reviewed regularly through a process called performance appraisal. Performance appraisal helps in establishing and identifying if the set objectives and standards are in line with the performance results. Generally, performance pay is usually rewarded on basis of performance results rather than on the time worked, (Council, 2011). Performance pay for teachers has been quite a subject of contention in many places and especially in the USA. Performance pay is meant to compensate teachers based on a set of performance standard and does not consider a teacher’s level of education or the level of experience gained. Hence, the more outstanding results a teacher produces from the students, the more the teacher is to be paid. Merit pay does not necessarily come...
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...through collective bargaining. One of the biggest union forces in the United States is the teachers union. With almost close to 5 million members nationwide, the teachers union is one of the most powerful unions. Through collective bargaining, problems have been created for the public school system which takes place at local school districts; rules have been imposed to create ineffective forms of organization at schools. The rules that are currently in place by collective bargaining are also creating a big disconnection with many public schools, that being the interest of the children. The teachers union is one main role players that is behind the organized education system of the United States. So, why are the public schools systems in the United States failing? The answer can be complicated a one, one of the reasons why the public school system is broken is due to the collective bargaining through the teachers union. Collective bargaining has made great impact on student achievement, as a result, the teacher unions have often used their political power to block or weaken major education reform efforts, efforts that would expand school choice for many students and parents. School districts that engage in collective bargaining only promote job interest for teachers. The collective bargaining with teachers union does not promote an effective way for students to succeed in the classroom. Teachers are the most important people in children’s lives, their role is significant when it comes...
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...efore exploring knowledge- and skill-based pay or performance pay as an alternative teacher compensation strategy, it must be clearly understood that this strategy is not "merit pay" under a new name. Individual performance-based pay systems, or merit pay, traditionally have evaluated teachers against one another for a fixed pool of funds. The aim has been to identify and reward the "best" teachers with additional pay, although the determination of "best" often was subjective and based on non-existent or vague criteria. In contrast, skill-based pay rewards teachers for attaining and being able to use knowledge and skills valued by the school, district or state, such as the ability to teach all students the mathematics promoted by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics or the ability to diagnose individual student's learning needs and to provide instruction targeted at those needs. Skill attainment is judged against a predetermined, clear-cut standard. A skill-based pay system does not create competition among teachers because all have the opportunity to develop the skills. It also signals the type of skills the school wants its faculty to acquire and use. Skill-based pay systems, thus, focus individual skill development on the knowledge and skills necessary for the organization to accomplish its goals. A knowledge- and skill-based pay system can more directly relate a teacher's compensation to acquisition and demonstration of specific and skills than the current...
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...Rutgers The State University of New Jersey And Union of Rutgers Administrators American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO he following questions are based on the labor agreement between Rutgers University and the Union of Union of Rutgers Administrators American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO. Rutgers University is considered to be the eighth oldest university in the United States. Rutgers, formally known as Queen’s College, prior to 1924, was an all-male school until 1918, when women were admitted to the university’s Douglass Campus, which was New Jersey College for Women. Today, Rutgers University, which has campus locations in Newark, New Brunswick, Camden and several others, consist of more than 58,000 students, 43,380 undergraduate students, 14,800 graduates students and 13,000 faculty and staffs. In 1970, Rutgers Council of American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Chapters was formed and throughout the years have formed separate collective bargaining units for employed graduate students, part time faculty, police personnel and educational opportunity fund counselors. In 2007, the American Associate of University Professor became affiliates of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). (Rutgers History) 1. Give the name of the union and the employer covered by the agreement. The name of the Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey 2. Effective dates of the agreement. The...
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... | |CHAPTER | |T Twelve | | | | | |Pay for Performance |12 | | |And Financial | | | |Incentives | | | |Lecture Outline | | | |Strategic Overview |In Brief: This chapter gives an overview of money | | |Money and Motivation: An Introduction |and motivation, and then outlines different | | |Performance and Pay |incentive programs that are used for different | | |Individual Differences |types of employees. It also discusses | | |Psychological Needs and Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic...
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...GS1140_Research Paper 1_Anthony Dowell Teacher Salaries in North Carolina Teacher salaries are swiftly losing ground in North Carolina. There are single teachers who have to live with their parents because they do not make enough to support themselves. The state legislature passed sweeping changes to public education in order to give more control to local school districts. Many of which affected teachers directly. The General Assembly, which is controlled by Republicans, ended teacher tenure, halted a salary increase to those with a master’s degree, and eliminated a cap on class size. No state has seen a more drastic decrease in teacher salary ranking in the past 10 years. Teacher tenure has been replaced by a merit-based system that rewards long-term contracts to the top 25% of teachers and shorter contracts to the rest. Because of this, teacher morale is down. At this point, teachers are questioning whether they want to teach, especially in North Carolina. They are having a hard time taking care of their families. Right now, there are educators who qualify for government assistance. It used to be that teachers with a master’s degree would get an increase in pay, but not anymore. There has been a halt on these increases. This goes back to merit pay; they have to prove themselves. Teachers are no longer limited to a particular class size. Now there is no cap. So a teacher may have to teach an unlimited number of students in a classroom; it no longer matters the size...
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...Chicago Public School teacher strike is a complex problem for each stakeholder. City officials, principals, teachers, parents and children all voice their frustrations and positions regarding the teacher strike. The strike was positioned as Emanuel vs. Lewis, but Lewis was contending with a union that installed her in order to take a more active stance and Emanuel’s plan, at least from publicly, was similarly aggressive. Inevitably, Emanuel and Lewis would meet. Consensus is that the CTU won, but Lewis admits that the actual contractual gains are unsatisfactory to her and the union. CTU came through over two decades of insufficiently strong (for the membership's desires) leadership, and Lewis took over after a major power shift. The teachers union expect that in the course of a couple of years that the union would change its internal stance and that by electing a competent head achieve all its goals in an anti-union environment during a period of austerity, all while contending with a figure like Rahm Emanuel. CTU positioned itself for future battles, such as school closings, and fighting attempts of the mayor to eliminate unions, close to up 120 and open charter schools with non-unionized teachers. Delegates for the Chicago Teachers Union filed a 10 day strike notice on August 29, 2012 and the strike was official Monday, September 10, 2012. Now, one week after the new school year start the city experienced its first teachers strike in 25 years...
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...Many merit pay programs, like APIP, have successfully worked in states like Texas. Before attaining any of these programs, certain circumstances must be met before being able to use a merit pay system. A district that applies for the drastic change in employee payment, must have a past of poor grade averages, low standardized test scores, and high drop-out rates. In addition, inner city schools or hard-to-fill positions are key factors in determining eligibility. Students begin to excel in school and become more understanding of the material. These programs motivate teachers and by giving them bonuses for their students’ performances. Therefore, implanting reward programs have increased the number of students scoring above 1100 on SAT or above 24 on the ACT by 30 percent in just one Texas high school. According to Education Next, top teachers who partook...
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...The concept of pay performance is attractive to the public sector because its basis is rooted in the perception that superior performance should be acknowledged and rewarded. Its implementation is varied, consisting of individuals, work groups, or departments being evaluated and having financial incentives distributed as base pay increases, one-time bonuses, or a combination. “Merit pay” is a term typically associated with pay for performance where individual performance ratings are directly correlated to annual salary increases in hopes that the incentive with increase employee effort and productivity. However, the critical component that directly affects success with this pay structure is employee perception on how equitable and attainable the expectations are within the incentive plan. Employees form beliefs and take actions based on how satisfied they are with their jobs as well as an opinion about state agencies as places to work and pursue careers. If these employees feel that the performance appraisal systems are not fair, then they will not be motivated by the premise of linking their pay to incentives. Moreover, these same employees will eventually become disgruntle and work at less productive rates because they feel as though “politics” or favoritism determines the outcome of their evaluations not personal achievement. Many employees were attracted to public sector jobs because of they were perceived to be secure with good benefits. Now, public agencies are moving...
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...UNION SENIORITY SYSTEMS Introduction Seniority systems have played a major role in the everyday aspect of American and International labor relations. And in enacting Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Congress provided a special exemption for seniority systems. Seniority systems popularity the work places makes the interpretation of the seniority exemption very important to both those who support seniority systems, Labor Unions, and those who support the broadest possible application of Title VII, Employers. The concept of seniority systems entails employment preferences based on an employee’s length of employment at a given employer. The basic concept is as the employee’s length of service increases so does their employment benefits and rights. There are two basic types of seniority systems – competitive and benefit seniority. Competitive seniority is used to determine an employee’s priority for job security, promotion, transfer, scheduling, and training opportunities. Benefit seniority involves the employee’s access to fringe benefits entitlements without regard to the status of other employees. Labor unions have been the strongest advocate for seniority systems, seeing three labor-oriented advantages: 1) employee’s have a degree of independence from employers in the areas of laid off and promotions, 2) the union has a guide when it comes to defending jobs for employees, and 3) seniority systems gives a sense of security and predictability for employee’s...
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...Pay for Performance through Strategic Planning Introduction Because studies have shown time and again that pay represents one of the most important factors involved in retaining qualified employees, it is little wonder that there has been a great deal of attention focused on how best to compensate employees for their performance in recent years. Moreover, because employee performance and productivity is inextricably related to organizational profitability, these issues have assumed new relevance and importance in the current economic environment. There have been some mixed reviews concerning pay-for-performance approaches to enhancing employee performance, though, that suggest there is more involved than simply throwing money at top performers. Despite these constraints, many authorities suggest that pay-for-performance programs have a lot to offer organizations seeking to identify better ways to improve employee performance. In this regard, Miller, Hildreth and Rabin (2012) note that, “Individual incentives have a central role to play in the success of most conceptual schemes related to performance. Such plans, while very difficult, have large possibilities; seemingly insurmountable obstacles can be overcome if the emphasis moves to the employee's relative needs for power, affiliation, and achievement” (p. 230). These are tall orders for any human resource manager and an organization’s leadership, though, and the fact remains that measuring individual performance is a complicated...
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