To Teach or Not to Teach?

If you're a K-12 teacher, or have the prospect of becoming one, you might want to read on. Compensation was based on years of experience in the past, and perhaps partially why you see the bulk of teachers in the 40-50 age group, the Baby Boomers who have stuck with their job. Perhaps they do truly want to 'influence the young and touch the future', or maybe it's just about the pay. With a younger age group coming in, the industry may be headed for a radical change and states and local school systems begin to rethink the classical idea of experience compensation.

The new idea on the block is performance pay. Why pay a man/woman more each year if they are using the same outdated teaching materials from the 1980's? If they are not creating any productivity in the classroom, why should they be compensated more each year? Economics would define the adequate wage rate for a worker as when the marginal product of labor is equal to the wage. This theory would be the agrument for proponets of the new wage system. This makes sense, it will encourage teachers to push their students more and to increase standardized test scores. "Teachers in Chattanooga, Tenn., can earn four-figure bonuses for boosting student achievement". Maybe it's just me, but for any job a four-figure bonus sounds a bit excessive!!

The prolem though is that this theory is for businesses, can it be applied to education? Some say that performance tests are not a fair estimate of efficiency because some students just don't test well. And what about the subjectiveness of it all? Who decides what it 'increased achievement' and what's not?