The Essential Audacious Idea: Stop Tying Pay to Performance

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According to Bruno S. Frey and Margin Osterloh, authors of, Stop Tying Pay to Performance (HBR Dec/Jan 2012), the evidence is overwhelming: it doesn’t work.  The authors mainly refer to business models based on pay for performance, but of course, there are connections to our current education system’s obsession with this ill conceived concept. The authors state that in the business world, CEO compensation has sky-rocketed ( Example US S&P 500 where the ratio of average CEO pay to average employee salary went from about 40:1 in the 1970s to 325:1 in 2010) with very little to no correlation with increases in company performance.  The same is true of education systems that have employed pay-for-performance schemes.

According to the authors all variable pay-for-performance schemes suffer from four flaws.  I have refocused Frey and Osterlohs’ lens from business to education, but for the most part, the four flaws below are nearly direct quotes from their article:

  1. In a modern world, where kids still sit in rows listening to teachers lecture, it’s impossible to determine what instructional practices will need to be employed in the future precisely enough for pay for performance to work well.
  2. Teachers subject to variable pay for performance don’t and clearly won’t accept the criteria.  As we have already seen, unions and governments spend a lot of time, money and energy trying to manipulate the criteria in their favor.
  3. Variable pay for performance often leads teachers to focus exclusively on areas covered by the criteria, neglect other important work with students.  They are motivated to teach to the test.
  4. Variable pay for performance tends to crowd out intrinsic motivation and thus the joy of fulfilling work.  Such motivation is of great importance to schools because it supports innovation and encourages beyond ordinary contributions.

The research is clear, it’s not about the money.  Pay for performance causes more problems than it solves and, “there’s no proof that it helps achieve its intended purposes, and other approaches not only work better but also strengthen employee loyalty.”

Most of us got in the business of education because we care for students and have a huge belief in the rock-bed of this country, public education.   We value recognition from our peers and superiors and we do the work because we find it challenging and worthwhile.  Given these obvious truths, the authors suggest we do the following things:

  1. Hire folks who are truly interested in the work that needs to be done.
  2. Pay fixed compensation but adjust it on the basis of a comprehensive evaluation of an employee’s work.  To do this right, I feel we must look at a triangulation of data which should include: student performance on state tests, evidence of student work (I imagine digital portfolios stocked full of authentic student work that demonstrates their improvement in reading, writing, speaking, viewing, listening, and critical thinking), and finally, satisfaction survey results from the people educators serve: students and parents.
  3. And finally, we need to award and recognize educators, students, community members and parents often.  Celebrate success at staff meetings, through blogs, newsletters, personalized letters, plaques, trophies, etc.

 

The Essential Literacy Publications, Research and Resources

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Still working my way through the Disciplinary Literacy book by Thomasina Piercy and William Piercy.  On page 19 of their book, they provide a list of key literacy publications, research and resources that I intend to work my way through and keep at my fingertips for continuous reference.  They include:

  • Changing Literacy for Changing Times by Hoffman and Goodman, 2009, Routledge
  • Common Core State Standards.  National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010, www.corestandards.org
  • Rigorous Curriculum Design. Ainsworth, 2010, Lead + Learn Press
  • “About the Elementary and Secondary Education Act”. Dennis, 2009, State of Washington, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, www.k12.wa.us/esea
  • Five Minds for the Future.  Gardner, 2008, Harvard Business School Press
  • Leading Change in your School.  Reeves, 2009, ASCD
  • “New Bloom’s Taxonomy”. Overbaugh and Schultz, 209, www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm
  • Outliers: The Story of Success and What the Dog Saw. Gladwell, 2008 and 2009, Brown and Company
  • Visual Tools for Transforming Information into Knowledge.  Hyerle, 209, Corwin Press
  • “P-21 Framework Outcomes – Interdisciplinary Themes for Core Subjects”.  Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009, www.21stcenturyskills.org/
  • Schooling by Design.  Wiggins and McTighe, 2007, ASCD
  • “Standards for the Assessment of Reading and Writing 21st Century Literacies”. National Council of Teachers of English, 2009, www.ncte.org/standards/assessmentstandards
  • “Teaching Disciplinary Literacy to Adolescents”.  Shanahan and Shanahan, 2008, Harvard Educational Review
  • “The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Administrators (2009)”.  ISTE, 2009, www.iste.org/NETS/ (click on “NETS for Administrators 2009″)
  • Time to Act: An Agenda for Advancing Adolescent Literacy for College and Career Success.  Carnegie Corporation.  Carnegie Council on Advancing Adolescent Literacy, 2010, www.carnegie.org/literacy, Cavanaugh Press

 

The Essential Citizen Journalist. Ideas for Authentic Student Work

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I am making my way through an interesting book titled, Disciplinary Literacy. Redefining deep understanding and leadership for 21st century demands.  Authors Thomasina Piercy and William Piercy relate a variety of ideas to engage students in rigorous, relevant and authentic work that easily meet both ELA and Math Common Core Standards.  The main idea is to provide ample opportunity for students to assume an identity and then learn how to read, write, speak, view, listen and think through the lens of that identity, e.g. read like a mathematician, write and think like a scientist, report like an historian.

In this particular blog, I want to focus on a foundational identity the authors state all students need to learn to assume, that is as Citizen Journalists.  No matter what you teach (math, science, social studies, ELA) or kind of student you teach (ESE, Gifted, ELL) you can easily engage your students in the Citizen Journalist process outlined below while simultaneously aligning your efforts to a key edict of the Common Core standards; every teacher is responsible for teaching literacy skills.

Ultimately the big idea of employing a literacy strategy such as Citizen Journalist, is to engage students in authentic work that starts with students choosing an event or story of interest to research and then finally publish their own thinking on the topic.  The concept of citizen journalism stems from a current 21st century phenomena where regular people, not in the journalism trade, can access real time raw data and report on it.  This raw data is essentially unfiltered by reporters, textbook companies, television reports, newspapers, parents, teachers, friends, etc.  One resource for this type of unfiltered raw data can be found at whitehouse.gov, an iPhone application where regular folks can access real time events as they unfold with virtually no filtered information with the report.  Of course, we can also access filtered information from the White House on current and past events related to domestic and global happenings.

Organizing students into small groups, you need to first model the whole process from end to end.  Together, your class should choose a compelling reported event or story from the White House app or the news.  You can instantly see that for a science teacher, students could look for science related articles, and so on and so forth for other content specific teachers.  You need to provide your students with at least a triangulation of unfiltered and filtered complex text.  Again, complex text can include raw unfiltered reported events as they happen and filtered text such as news and stories already reported on an event via the Internet and video.  Expand your mind in terms of what you think text is.  There’s print text from blogs, magazines and newspapers but text can also be delivered via video and radio addresses.  Notice textbooks aren’t even mentioned in this assignment, however, they can and still do, serve as useful resources for students as they dig deeper into their topics.  Another source, which will also be a place you can have students post their culminating work, is a site specifically designed for Citizen Journalists, CNN’s www.cnn.com/mobile/iphone/.

Obviously you will need access to the Internet, a way to project information and or let the students either access content through school supplied computers and Internet access or allow them to utilize their own smartphones to access the Internet and grab content.  They will also ultimately need to post their articles in a digital format.  In the mean time, you can print out articles on the chosen topic and project videos and audio files from the front of the room.  Either way, students need access to a variety of text.

Next, the class breaks down their research of these text genres or types into three literacy actions:

  1. Evaluating and analyzing
  2. Questioning unfiltered and filtered information
  3. And distributing information to others through blogs and CNN’s www.cnn.com/mobile/iphone/

Students begin the process by questioning and ultimately answering the context of each type of text and its source (evaluating and analyzing).  Don’t assume any of your students know how to do this.  It’s a process you will need to take the lead on with consistent modeling and provision of multiple opportunities for guided practice.  This process will also require your consistent follow through with multiple checks for understanding as you invite students to think, talk, read, listen, view and write to answer these questions first with you, then in small groups, and then finally slowly release them to work as individuals.

We begin with evaluating and analyzing our triangulation of complex text, which remember, can include video and audio clips:

  • Who is providing the information and how is that source connected to the topic?
  • Can this source be trusted?  Why or why not?
  • What does this source have to gain by providing this view of the information?
  • In what way does this information, provided “by the people” accurately inform me or not?

Next, students question filtered and unfiltered information by asking:

  • What claims or ideas in the information must be fact-checked for accuracy?
  • Is this a primary document or has it been recycled by others?  Explain how.
  • Does this information create a dilemma for me or others?  If so explain why and how.
  • How does this new information connect with me and my prior information?

And finally, students synthesize their research and prepare an authentic project to distribute their new thinking and information to others in the form of a blog or posting an article on CNN’s site designed specifically for Citizen Journalists at www.cnn.com/mobile/iphone/ after considering and answering the following questions :

  • What is my responsibility in reporting this information?
  • Will my voice be perceived as reliable?
  • How will my reporting contribute to interdependent or other peoples’ understanding?
  • What medium will best communicate this information with clarity to the public?
  • What will be the possible impact or results of our reporting?

I look forward to hearing from those of you who try this strategy with your students.  It’s a rigorous activity that brings in current and relevant topics pertaining to any subject you teach.  It invites and requires all of your students to engage in all areas of literacy. To consume information they read, listen, and view.  To produce new thinking they write for specific audiences and publish that thinking through authentic engaging 21st century means.  And most importantly they must take a stand, take a position, assume an identity, produce new knowledge, argue for and justify their thinking on relevant and meaningful topics.