What’s the big idea? For any education system to be successful it has to attract, retain, and motivate people to be teachers who produce successful outcomes, including learning, for their students. Rather than thinking about the average level of teacher pay as an isolated policy, the entire structure of the teaching profession–how people are attracted into preparing to be teachers, the pre-service training itself, the recruitment process of potential teachers, the posting and transfers, teacher evaluation, in-service training, and structure of compensation–have to be thought of as a integrated approach. Changing one element in ways that are incoherent with the others, including across the board increases in teacher pay, are unlikely to produce sustained improvements in teaching quality and learning.
Teacher Compensation: Can Decentralization to Local Bodies Take India From Perfect Storm Through Troubled Waters to Clear Sailing?” India Policy Forum, 2006/07. (with Rinku Murgai). The Indian situation is different from others in that teacher pay in public sector schools is very high relative to private schools and compared to the market clearing wage. However, this is combined with such negative features of the teacher compensation system that there is a “perfect storm” in which students learn little, parents are unhappy, the public sector loses students to private sector–and public sector teachers themselves are unhappy. This paper explores the question of whether transferring the control of schools–and of teachers–to locally elected bodies (district, block, village–the Panchayat Raj Institutions) a new design of the teaching profession, career path, and compensation could produce win-win-win-win: better learning, happier teachers, satisfied parents, all at the same or less cost.
“Teacher Pay in Argentina: Right Level? Right Structure?” (with Emiliana Vegas and William Experton) (prepared for Teacher Pay in Latin America).