The Link Between Teacher Pay and Teacher Quality

Does teacher pay have an effect on teacher quality? Are people foregoing the teaching profession because of the pay? Would incentive pay improve teacher quality? These questions have all be studied and analyzed ad nauseam. Many studies show that teachers will remain in the system longer if there are better financial incentives. There are currently programs that pay teachers more in order to attract better teachers. For instance, there is a new charter school in the Washington Heights section of New York City that promised to pay its teachers $125K. To read more about the school, check their website or this article.

As I mentioned in my last post, President Obama discussed merit pay as part of the education policy reform in his speech at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. It will be interesting to see how that is carried out on the national level, if it is. In many cases, merit pay is done at charter schools. The structure of charter is often quite different than that of the rest of the public educational system, which may include the lack of unions and teacher contracts. Furthermore, many studies on teacher merit have been by state level. So, if there is a national reform on merit pay, it would provide data on the effectiveness of merit pay on the national level.

The Link Between Teacher Pay and Teacher Quality