The CEOs of Canada's largest employers want to dangle a performance carrot in front of teachers, suggesting the best ones should be paid better. Readers, print and digital, assign mixed grades to the idea of merit pay for teachers
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My parents are both high school teachers and I now work in rewards Human Resources.
I think the biggest differentiators in performance are extracurricular, whether it be coaching a team or holding extra study sessions. Grades of course will be a factor, but teachers are paid only for those hours they spend in class. It's the countless hours outside class that make the real difference to kids and that should be considered in performance-based pay.
Ashley Morgan, Ottawa
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The big issue isn't pay for performance. Anyone experienced in hiring will tell you giving a raise to an underperformer will just get you a more expensive underperformer. Pay primarily makes a difference insofar as the employer can attract "better" candidates. As long as seniority and the virtual impossibility of firing staff are the key drivers, higher pay wouldn't do anything but increase cost.
The issue is seniority. Principals do not have the latitude to put the best people in the best position. A Grade 6 math teacher does not necessarily make a good kindergarten teacher and vice versa. However, if a school has lots of good Grade 6 math teachers with seniority and lots of good kindergarten teachers with no seniority – guess what happens? The grumpy Grade 6 math teacher will be teaching kindergarten, mailing in their performance while they wait for a more suitable position. Meanwhile, the excellent kindergarten teachers will go begging for a position elsewhere (maybe teaching Grade 6 math). The kids don't enter into this equation.
Darryl Squires, Ottawa
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How would assessments of merit fit into union principles? That aside, this question of value as a teacher is filled with more subtle difficulties. For example, to a large extent a teacher's ability to instruct is dependent on the composition and attention span of the class involved.
Jerry Ames, Vancouver
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It may be partly true that teachers aren't motivated by money, but every teachers' strike I can remember involved salaries.
Brian Wilson, Selwyn, Ont.
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Teachers aren't the problem, working and learning conditions are. Instead of financing more standardized testing (how did you think they were going to determine merit pay?), why not finance smaller class sizes at the junior, intermediate and senior levels? More attention from the teacher might not only help academic achievement, but students' self-esteem too. After all, we're all worth more than a test score.
Mélissa Compain, elementary teacher, Toronto
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Teachers should be paid according to their qualifications. Any other measurement is either subjective or inaccurate, and prone to favouritism, budget manipulation and class make-up.
Mike Hance, Oshawa
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Having held many roles in the education system, I am convinced teachers who are driven to excellence will continue to do their best work regardless of financial remuneration. Teaching is not just a job, it's a calling.
Edwin Buettner, Winnipeg
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Research has shown that effective teaching is the result of teachers being valued, their professional judgment being respected, and being provided with the opportunity to engage in professional development that is practical and related to the work they do in classrooms. Effective teaching and student success is also reliant upon an education system that is properly funded and staffed with all members of the school team.
Students not only need effective teachers to be successful, they need social policies and supports that address poverty, mental-health issues, access to postsecondary education and training, and opportunities to obtain good, sustainable jobs that allow them to create a future for themselves.
Teachers' salaries are best left to the bargaining process with the recognition of qualifications and experience.
Paul Elliott, president, Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation
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Politicians are already too well paid. Teachers are not paid enough when little Johnny fails and Mom and Dad harp at the teacher as if it is the teacher's fault.
Jeremy Mather, Saskatoon
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You measure performance by establishing baseline, and then measuring the difference from that baseline. A class is not an accurate baseline as kids move from school to school, some have problems and do poorly, and sometimes disruptive kids can destroy a whole class's learning. So the only baseline possible is personal, which means personalized standardized testing, but if a principal sabotages one classroom by putting some of the more disruptive kids in it, those kids in that class will have a drop in marks. Too many variables.
Cliff Wardle, Ottawa
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Incentivizing great educators is a great idea, but not until we get our house in order in terms of education reform. The first time I really encountered the subject of critical thought and the Socratic method was in college.
Stephen Harvey, New Westminster, B.C.
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A poor teacher does not last in the system. Today's kids eat them alive. Teachers are not motivated by money. And the money really isn't that great when you factor in nightly and weekend marking and prep, and extracurricular supervision.
As for the teachers' pension, they pay a huge chunk of their wages into it. The system isn't broken, so no need to fix it. In fact, it works very well. I speak from experience, having been married to a high school teacher for 27 years.
Colin Gruchy, Toronto
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ON REFLECTION Letters to the editor
Wage hike? Get a grip
Re Ontario Hike Widens Wage Gap (Jan. 31): Obviously it's important to contextualize a provincial decision within the larger national economic narrative, but your headline feels more forced than a Rob Ford apology.
Are we supposed to be worried that Ontario students struggling to pay tuition will be making 75 cents an hour more on minimum wage? Minimum-wage earners notoriously spend all their income. The "shaky economy" will actually enjoy a boost from the multiplier effect of this extra spending.
Matthew Beatty, Toronto
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Money enough to live
So Ontario will raise the minimum wage by 75 cents an hour: Starting June 1, someone on minimum wage working 40 hours a week will earn $440, less deductions. This is supposed to help people climb out of poverty?
Rubbish!
Only when politicians realize there's a huge gap between the minimum wage and a living wage will the situation improve for those in poverty.
It's the living wage we should be concerned about. And that is far more than $11 an hour.
Nigel Bennett, Stratford, Ont.
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Double Standards 'R' Us
Re Law Faculties Challenge School Over Ban On Same-Sex Relations (Jan. 31): Allow me to point out the obvious elephant in the room. If Trinity Western University were anything but a Christian university – Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu etc. – and insisted on the same moral code, those opposing its law school would be reminding us how tolerant and open-minded we should be.
But we're Canadians and we have double standards to live up to.
Jerry Pryde, Stoney Creek, Ont.
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The door to the Senate
After two years of public consultation, the all-party Special Joint Committee On Senate Reform 1984 recommended an elected Senate with a nine-year term. It urged the removal of partisan politics from the Senate, as Justin Trudeau has initiated. An elected Senate would better garner public approval by giving voters the power of appointment – unlike the Prime Minister's plan to retain the appointment power, or Mr. Trudeau's plan for appointment by a committee.
Paul Cosgrove, former joint chairman, Special Joint Committee on Senate Reform