These theories are based in the belief that people are rational and react to incentives and that you can increase performance with the correct catalyst.
In this program, salary raises are based on some aspects of teacher performance, measured by a combination of observations and student test scores.
Since adopting TAP in 2001, Bell Street Middle School has doubled the percent of students with advanced scoring in math and reading.
[4] In 2006, the United States Congress created a $600 million federal grant program called the Teacher Incentive Plan (TIF).
According to the U.S. Department of Education, the TIF "supports efforts to develop and implement performance-based teacher and principal compensation systems in high-need schools."
In this program, teachers are given nine ways to increase their earnings, such as working in a high-needs schools, exceeding expectations on state exams, meeting professional objectives set at the beginning of the year, receiving a worthy evaluation from a principal, and gaining "distinguished school" status by meeting mixed criteria such as parent satisfaction.
The National Center on Performance Incentives conducted a three-year study in the metropolitan Nashville School System from 2006 through 2009, in which middle school mathematics teachers participated in an experiment to evaluate the effect of financial rewards for teachers whose students showed large gains on standardized tests.
An experiment conducted by Kahneman et al. 1990 Journal of Political Economy describes testing loss aversion through the concepts of the Endowment effect and the Coase Theorem.
[10] Another experiment conducted by Terrance Odean at Berkeley College examined the account of 10,000 investors at a large discount brokerage house.
According to Odean, these investors held on to these losing stocks in order to prolong the feeling of loss from selling them, even though there was no evidence that by holding onto them, they would rise in value.
He wishes to work with the National Education Association (NEA) to find a new system to get rid of performance pay.
Our members are open to alternatives, but we will always oppose quick fixes designed to weaken the voice of teachers and effectiveness of education employees in all jobs.In September 2011, Obama took steps to reform certain unpopular and ineffective provisions of No Child Left Behind: "Congress hasn't been able to do it, so I will.
[20] The most notable change to the law related to the 2014 deadline for all schools to bring their entire student body to "proficient" levels in reading and math.
To qualify for the waivers, however, states must demonstrate an adoption of "college and career ready" academic standards and deliver a sketch of how they plan to transform their lowest performing schools.
According to Eugene Wilhoit, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, likely candidates for early application include Georgia, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Colorado.
The NPR's "Blair House Papers" explained that: Performance-Based Organizations (PBOs) are discrete management units that commit to clear objectives, specific measurable goals, customer service standards, and targets for improved performance.
The British, who have extensive experience with this concept, find that such agencies improve performance and cut administrative costs.
George W. Bush and other Republicans favored shifting federal civilian employee salary pay raises from across-the-board uniform raises towards a merit-based pay system—particularly through a proposed system called the "...Human Capital Performance Fund, which agencies can use to reward their highest performing employees,..." according to a March, 2004 letter to Congress from the Bush administration's Director of the Office of Management & Budget (OMB), Joshua Bolten.
Chairman of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) claimed, "These increases are driven by automatic, tenure-based pay hikes that are in no way tied to merit or performance.
Critics, however, and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), concluded that federal workers earned substantially more than their counterparts in the private sector.
[24][25] On December 27, 2012, Obama issued an executive order giving federal employees an across-the-board raise, estimated by Congressional Republicans as costing taxpayers "$11 billion over ten years."
It simply prevents the President from implementing a planned across the board increase for all federal employees[27]In late 2013, the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank, published research by analysts Choi and Whitford, who cautioned that—despite a shift of resources to merit-based pay for federal workers, intended to "better align pay and performance"—such efforts often fail, and such incentives "may not work" for "public organizations."
[29][30][31][32][33][34] The issue first became a major national topic when a doctor at the VA hospital in Phoenix reported that perhaps more than 40 patients had died due to false and secret waiting-lists that delayed or prevented their care.
[29][30][31][32][33][34] Citing records obtained by OpentheBooks.com through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, Fox News reported that Employees at the Phoenix VA office were paid "millions in higher-than-average salaries and bonuses," adding that between 2011 and 2013, "over $843,000 in bonuses" were paid out to approximately "half the system's 3,170 workers".
[35] Subsequent allegations and audits revealed the waiting list issue in Phoenix was not unique, but part of a wider, systemic problem in the VA nationwide, with secret waiting lists and related issues being uncovered at numerous other VA medical facilities, including in Chicago, Kansas City, Wichita, El Paso, and elsewhere.
[29][31][32][36] On May 30, 2014, President Obama accepted the resignation of Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Gen. Eric Shenseki, noting that: A few minutes ago, Secretary Shinseki and Rob Nabors, who I've temporarily assigned to work with the VA, presented me with the department's initial review of VA facilities nationwide.
Secretary Shinseki has now begun the process of firing many of the people responsible, including senior leaders at the Phoenix VA.