Extra Credit

Joe Williams and EducationGuru have thoughtful responses to the questions I raised about merit pay plans (here and here). Joe’s bottom line is that merit pay right now would be “a total disaster” in most places because of implementation problems. But he supports, as I do, economic incentives to lure the best teachers into the schools that most need them.

EducationGuru’s detailed plan ends up lending support to Joe’s conclusion–when you read what she has to offer, you come away convinced that it is worthy, expensive, and hard to implement well.

In light of all of this, I am left wondering why so many education reformers get excited if a politician mentions merit pay? If Joe is correct, it is not going to be done well anytime soon at scale. Maybe we should move on to more feasible, higher-impact items.