Merit for Teachers

Merit pay for teachers based on student achievement is a ridiculous idea unless teachers can be guaranteed that all students are heterogeneously grouped and randomly assigned to classrooms. If this doesn’t happen then teachers and schools that are already meeting achievement goals based on an a geographic economic distribution model (property taxes) will receive all the “merit” pay. The schools that have the most to lose will eventually lose more and continue to be seen as failing. Moral question. Why do we continue to punish teachers and students that operate at the fringes of society? Giving more to those that already have more is morally wrong—merit pay is morally wrong.