Recently I watched "Waiting for Superman", a documentary on the US education system and the problems surrounding inner city schools.

Perhaps the most glaring thing that stood out from the film was the fact that teachers received tenure after 3 years of teaching and there was no form of merit-based pay, i.e. you can't fire the teacher even if he is shirking all the time because he's on tenure... and you can't reward teachers for excellence because there's no allowance for merit-based pay in the contracts.

Now, I'm not saying reforming the terms of the teaching contract is a panacea for the ills plaguing the US education system. I think that's too simplistic an idea and the teacher cannot be blamed or expected to perform miracles with kids that come from a background that doesn't have an emphasis on education and have family/income problems etc.

What I am saying however, is that if equipping a child's education involves effort from many different agents: the teacher, the student, the parent; then there is something wrong with the incentive structure we are providing the teachers with. The contract as it is, states that you are awarded the same compensation whether or not you put in minimal effort or lots of effort into your students. If teachers are part of the story, then with the current terms of agreement, we sure as heck aren't motivating them to be the best they can be.

And to this regard, i don't think the film is exaggerating. Speaking to some of my American friends, the overall impression I gained was that good teachers acted out of generosity, because there was nothing in it for them to be excellent at their job except the desire to see their own students excel. We'd like it if the people who chose to become teachers didn't do so for the reasons of monetary reward, but the problem here is that we're not even recognizing or rewarding the teachers who are better and who work hard at their job.

But let's take a step back. If the contract is an issue, why haven't things changed?

Well, part of this problem stems from the question of how to assess teachers, especially teachers from inner city schools. Mere assessment of student test scores is not necessarily a fair evaluation of one's teaching ability. For one thing, some of these students come from such difficult backgrounds that the teacher is playing more than just the role of imparting knowledge. He'll have to act as counsellor, mentor, guide and cheerleader. these aspects of a teacher may not be well captured in test scores and cutting out teachers who play such roles to their students would be a loss to education as well.

To this end, this seems like a fair argument as to why unions have resisted changing the terms of the contract. they would like to protect teachers from unfair assessments that place too much emphasis on academic achievement only.

Yet, the unions' actions go too far. we'll back at the problem where there exists no incentive structure for teachers. Rather than resisting, it makes more sense to compromise and discuss some platform for teacher evaluation. Eliminating merit-based pay entirely makes no sense whatsoever.

In addition, if we can't decide what makes a good teacher, then let's talk about what makes a bad teacher. After all, its sometimes easier to define "what's not" than to define "what is".

A simple example I have in mind is observing students perform worse under a teacher. if students previously were B grade students at time t but come out of a class as D grade students at time t+1, then this to me is not a good teacher. One way then is to not offer pay increments . Supposing everyone is to receive salary increments every 2 years, a teacher identified as a poor performer would not have his salary docked, but would miss out on the pay increment.

Well, these are just ideas. my main point however is going down the same path and keeping the current terms of contract doesn't seem like a good option. I benefited from Singapore's education system where the teaching system had its wage structure follow a merit-based pay program. I think it would be good to see if teachers here perform drastically different if we recognize and reward them for their efforts.