Blue Jersey:: Ed Reform 101: Merit Pay, Seniority & Tenure

Blue Jersey:: Ed Reform 101: Merit Pay, Seniority & Tenure:

Ed Reform 101: Merit Pay, Seniority & Tenure

by Jersey Jazzman

Blue Jersey's Ed Reform 101
Part 3 - Myths about Merit Pay, Seniority & Tenure

As with so many other parts of the corporate "reform" agenda, adherence to merit pay and abolishing tenure is more a matter of faith than reality.

The truth is that there is no evidence that radically changing how we fire, layoff, and pay teachers will have any positive effect on student learning. There are, however, many reasons to believe that instituting merit pay and getting rid of tenure will harm students and the interests of taxpayers.

We also know that the difference between high-performing and low-performing schools is not whether they have merit pay schemes, or tenure, or lay offs based on seniority; why impose these changes on schools that are doing agreat job educating kids?

What you should know about merit pay, seniority & tenure:

"Pure" merit pay experiments in schools have failed every time they've been attempted.