The average salary for teachers in America about 45,500. On top of low pay teachers in high needs schools often use money out of their own pocket in order to fund and support classroom activities. In America, there is currently a large amount of protest for higher teacher pay. Many believe that higher pay will mean better teachers, but does a raise in salary specifically means that there will be an improvement in teacher performance?
Higher Teacher Salaries:
Most people believe the higher teachers salaries attract better teachers to high needs schools where student performance is often bad. This is assumed because a teacher being paid more are less likely to get another job to meet their financial needs. If a teacher has to get a job then they divert time away from developing better curriculum and activities to teach the students. This is not the case for most teachers, nearly 40% of teachers in Texas have a second job in order to meet ends meet.
However, based on studies conducted in other states. Raising wages does not improve teacher performance, for current teachers. Raising wages instead improves teacher retention rate and would maintain more quality teachers at high needs schools.
In order to improve teacher performance, the better strategy would be to increase the rigor of the education program and use wages raise as an incentive for teacher performances. Surprisingly, half of the graduate education programs in the US require lower than a 3.0 GPA to be admitted. So underqualified teachers have a higher chance of enrolling in a teaching program. In countries like Singapore, the standards for being a teacher are much higher and require you to have a 3.0 GPA or above and pass and standardized test in order to get into the class. Because it’s more selective to become a teacher in Singapore teachers have higher salaries, because teaching degrees require more commitment and cognitive capability. So one solution would be to increase selectivity in teaching programs. In order to weed out, people not commited to teaching. Teachers are not required to have any past experience in teaching, I think there should be reform that requires teachers to have classroom experience while they’re in school. With more experience before they enter the workforce teachers can requst higher wages. Another solution that could be proposed is raising teachers salaries when there are improvements with there test scores. Teachers with poor student progress can be incentives with salary raise when they improve their students improve. Or you could use the same concept, but instead, raise the salary for poorly performing teachers that take the time to enroll in workshops that help improve their teaching.
In conclusion, simply raising teachers salaries will not automatically improve there teaching quality. Higher Wages can attract teachers with higher cognitive abilities in the future. But if we were to raises the academic standards for teachers higher wages could be offered because teachers are in more rigorous programs for their skill.