Where evaluation meets merit pay

I have written previously about merit pay for teachers, and about teacher compensation in general. Today I read an article, based on the results of a serious UK study and analysis, which provides recent and concrete evidence of the problems of linking pay to student "performance".
The report notes that "just 45 per cent of secondary school pupils make expected progress ... Of the pupils who do make expected progress, the majority will do so at an uneven rate, including periods of both slower and more rapid progress. This means that many children will be underperforming at some stage of their school career."

Disturbingly, "it is remarkable just how many women teachers over 50 complain ... that they are being given impossible pupil progression targets and are being shown the exit door with alacrity when these are not achieved."

The article goes on to ask, "how many teachers' and school leaders’ careers [have been] ruined because of [an] inadequate and inaccurate conception of linear pupil progress?"

Indeed.

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Further reading

Click here for the article.

Click here for the study.