Evaluation and Recommendations on Merit Pay in Compulsory Education Schools Lijiang Hou Zhijuan Gao Huoqiang Li Xinxin Hu * The School of Public Administration. Southwestern University of Finance and Economics * Lijiang Hou, is the head of Human resources management department of The School of Public Administration in Southwestern University of Finance and Economics,ph. d. in economics,and an Associate Professor. Zhijuan Gao, is a master student majoring in Human Resource Management of The School of Public Administration in Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. Huoqiang Li, is a master student of Human Resource Management of The School of Public Administration in Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. Xinxin Hu, is a master student of Human Resource Management of The School of Public Administration in Southwestern University of Finance and Economics.
1 The Evaluation of the Implementation of Merit Pay in Our Compulsory Education Schools...1 1.1 The Differences of Public Finance among Regions...1 1.2 The Differences of Appraisal System...1 1.3 Evaluation-orientated Differences...2 2 The Law and Methods of Merit Pay in the Compulsory Education Schools in Developed Countries and Regions...2 2.1 America...2 2.2 Britain...3 2.3 Hong Kong...3 3 Suggestions on the Implementation of Merit Pay in Compulsory Education Schools...4 3.1 Establishing Appraisal Mechanism According to Post Information...4 3.2 Effectively supervising of the Appraisal Process...5 3.3 Designing the Salary Distribution System with the Appraisal Result 4 Conclusion...6
It is stipulate in the relevant rules of our country s Compulsory Education Law and Pedagogic Law that the average wage of compulsory education teachers should not be less than that of the local civil servant.. In order to implement the provisions and improve our education school teachers' pay, our compulsory education schools began to implement merit pay policy from Jan.1st, 2009. Therefore, what about the effect? How to realize the incentive effect of merit pay? These issues have become the focus, which has attracted great concern of the society. 1 The Evaluation of the Implementation of Merit Pay in Our Compulsory Education Schools The teacher s wage level has been improved to a certain extent after the compulsory education schools applying merit pay for one year. However, it came out a lot of problems viewed from the implementing situation. Combining the relevant rules of The Guidelines on Merit Pay in Compulsory Education Schools the author randomly visited some compulsory education schools, and found the deviation between the system and reality after the understanding of relevant information. 1.1 The Differences of Public Finance among Regions The Guidelines on Merit Pay in Compulsory Education Schools is a national guidance document, too principled, too general, and lack of maneuverability. The wage of our compulsory teachers comes from the public finance of every region which applies the rule of Giving priority to the county, funds planed by the province, and given proper support by the central. However, public finance shows the obvious gap between the rich and the poor and can not form the integrated system for performance appraisal according to the differences among regions. It is easy to form the deviation of merit pay policy. 1.2 The Differences of Appraisal System The Guidelines on Merit Pay in Compulsory Education Schools stipulates that the performance appraisal of teachers should combine the method of performance appraisal of the education sectors and the internal appraisal system of schools. Teaching activity is a quite 1
complicated process, thus teachers behavior should be the core of appraisal. But sometimes, there is not the linear relation between teaching activities and performances. Some subjective teaching activities are difficult to calculate, such as the evaluation of the quality of teaching and researching. Besides, excessive quantifiable assessment will result in the teachers pay too attention to the emphatic assessed indexes, but neglect the indexes which are quite important for cultivating talents but difficult to make quantitative analysis exactly. 1.3 Evaluation-orientated Differences It is clearly stipulated in The Guidelines on Merit Pay in Compulsory Education Schools that the proportion of students entering schools of a higher grade shall not be put as an indicator. But it is ideal to appraise the performance of teachers without considering the proportion. After all, according to China s present national conditions, the proportion of students entering schools of a higher grade is still the most important indicator of a school s teaching quality. We can take the proportion as one of the appraisal indicators, comprehensively consider the ratio and guide the teachers to put efforts on the implementation of quality education and raise the grades of students. 2 The Law and Methods of Merit Pay in the Compulsory Education Schools in Developed Countries and Regions 2.1 America In 1920s, the American public schools began to try out the system reform of merit pay. With the unceasing development, the merit pay system of the American public schools has achieved great success today. In 2009, in the conference held by the US Hispanic Americans Chamber of Commerce, the incumbent president Obama commended the teachers merit pay, reaffirmed the support for the teachers' pay system on the basis of performance and praised South Carolina for its contribution in this field. In the United States, the increasingly popular merit pay model is the statistical model "appreciated value evaluation" which was put forward by Williams Sandy of Tennessee State University in the early 1990s. The model is mainly used to evaluate the progress 2
of students in one year. Appreciated value evaluation put the increased value of students which is gained through school education activities as the educational evaluation criteria used to evaluate the impact on the progress of students in learning from the teachers and schools. The researchers of the University of Florida investigated over 500 schools and the data showed that in the schools where the teachers were given merit pay, the grades of students increased 1% to 2%. Another study suggested that compared with the teachers who did not participate in the merit pay, the teachers who were granted awards of the merit pay, in the pivotal examination, the score of their each student in the same grade was improved 40%. However, some other academic researches found that public school teachers pay was increased, but with pressure of the performance appraisal, the satisfaction of teachers was decreased. 2.2 Britain The 1980s, Britain progressively applied the merit pay to the public service sectors, and in 1998, the plan integrating performance with pay was put forward to reward the outstanding teachers. Performance evaluation is regarded as a model which combined salary, responsibility and performance together. In December,1998, the Labor Government brought forward the PRP (Performance Related Pay)teachers national appraisal system which combined the performance with pay in the Green Gaper of the British Teachers Modernization. It aims to give proper reward to the principals for their contributions to the success of schools, keeps the teaching profession being attractive enough to talented youth, reward the outstanding teachers and promote the development of teaching profession, achieve the ultimate goal ---raising the education level. 2.3 Hong Kong Hong Kong is the region where merit pay system was tried out earlier in China. The salaries of principals and teachers in Hong Kong are divided into different scales according to the nature of the work, the major and the working years. Based on such a classification and combined with the teachers seniority and work performance, some schools determine the salary scales of teachers in accordance with the proportion of different levels of teachers. The minimum salary of a teacher 3
is about 17,000 Hong Kong dollars, while the salary of the principal with the highest level is monthly 83,000 Hong Kong dollars. In other words, a new teacher's minimum annual income is about 200,000 Hong Kong dollars and an excellent principal s annual income may reach 1,000,000 Hong Kong dollars. Therefore, the salaries of teachers in Hong Kong are in higher levels, which can attract a lot of talents and promote the development of education, but the pressure from performance appraisal is also steadily rising. 3 Suggestions on the Implementation of Merit Pay in Compulsory Education Schools 3.1 Establishing Appraisal Mechanism According to Post Information Compulsory education plays a fundamental role to improve people s quality, and therefore, merit pay s influence on the compulsory education teachers is not only economic. The key point is whether the appraisal mechanism is reasonable and scientific has a direct impact on teachers attitudes towards school and even education, and has a direct impact on their passion, enthusiasm and loyalty for work; whether the appraisal mechanism is open, equitable and fair has a direct impact on the result of merit pay. Therefore the performance appraisal criteria should be on the basis of full understanding of post information, adopt the scientific quantitative indicators, detail the appraisal indicators, combine quantitative and qualitative methods and give the teachers performance a comprehensive and objective appraisal. It is also important to note that as a particular profession --- teacher, the performance appraisal model could not be the same as the employees of enterprises who are paid by the job. Teaching is a rich and meaningful profession, and we should not simply use the quantification indicators to appraise teachers. Schools should establish appropriate quantification indicators, create a positive teaching atmosphere as well as appraisal, and not blindly led teachers to achieve the quantification indicators. In addition, it is stipulated in The Guidelines on Merit Pay in Compulsory Education Schools that 70% of the teachers salary is paid as a basis monthly in general;30% is paid as a reward of their salary, which is on the basis of appraisal and the ways and means are determined by the schools. As for 4
the 30% reward, it is necessary to establish appropriate salary scale but the gap should not be too large, because some indicators which are of great importance to cultivate talents but without way to quantify can not be executed, and if so, it will discouraged some teachers enthusiasm and creativity. 3.2 Effectively Supervising of the Appraisal Process In order to ensure that the process of the performance appraisal program which schools established according to their actual conditions is fair and equitable, schools should establish an effective monitoring mechanism, and monitor the whole performance appraisal process to avoid the occurrence of abuse of power for personal gains. Performance appraisal results should be transparent to enhance the persuasion. In addition, monitoring mechanisms should also establish clear channels of information feedback, to have the views and suggestions in time from teachers, and then analyze and correct our mistakes,so that teachers can fully understand the concept of "people-oriented", and realize the purpose of incentive pay ultimately. 3.3 Designing the Salary Distribution System with the Appraisal Result Teachers merit pay which accounts 30%, in compulsory education schools is paid on the basis of the result of performance. Whether the salary payment system is reasonable or not can affect the justice of performance pay directly. For example, teachers who carry on course reformation do not come out on top recording to teaching assignment or some other result of performance with quantifying indicators, but their contribution to the course reformation is very outstanding. So schools should give appropriate extra premium to the teachers who carry on scientific research or some other outstanding contribution on the basis of referring to the result of performance. At the same time, schools should encourage some mainstay teachers and scientific research staff to explore more effective teaching model, give full play to teachers' initiative and creativity, and really embody the allocation policy of the more outstanding you perform, the more pay you gain, and the more you work, the more you acquire. 5
4 Conclusions The implementation of performance pay system in compulsory education schools is an effective way of salary incentive, and it plays an important role on stimulating the initiative and creativity of teachers. So the scientific and reasonable appraisal mechanisms, supervising mechanisms and distribution systems are the basis of the performance pay system reform. 6