Australian Education Union, Victorian Branch

A 2007 report into pay by the Australian Council
for Educational Research (ACER) commissioned by the
Federal Government concluded: “Few merit-based pay
schemes have survived when applied to teaching.”
It found that they led to staff dissatisfaction and
dissension and that there was no evidence that they
improved student performance.
The report dismissed the idea that financial
incentives can improve what teachers know or can do,
or lead them to teach more effectively.
A growing number of recent American studies
(New York, Nashville, Houston, Iowa, Texas, Denver
and Chicago) of schemes very similar to the Victorian
Government’s proposal have found that they have
either no effect on student achievement or a negative
effect.
They also highlight the statistical invalidity and
educational and professional distortions required in
using student results to measure teacher performance.
Further, they have found no significant impact
on outcomes such as teacher motivation and
retention.
The New York bonus program, which influenced
the make-up of the Victorian Teacher Rewards
scheme, was recently abandoned by New York City
authorities as a complete failure.
Among other things it illustrated the perils of
substituting a bonus system for an enforceable
salary agreement. In the 2008–9 school year, more
than 80% of participating NY schools won bonuses,
costing the city $31 million. In 2009–10, that fell
below 15% and cost $4m, after the state made its
school tests harder.
Closer to home, in a press release on May 2
Premier Baillieu announced that the bonus scheme
operating in his Department of Premier and Cabinet
was to be “phased out”.
You would never guess from the State
Government’s proposals that Victorian teachers (as
evidenced by the superior achievement of the state’s
students nationally and internationally) are among the
nation’s best.
This success has been built through a system
which values collaboration rather than competition
between teachers. The clear evidence from recent
evaluations and surveys of teacher opinion is that
they do not want a competitive performance-based
pay system.
They do not want a system where bonuses to
one group of teachers come from downgrading the
salaries of another group.
They do want salaries that are competitive with
similar professional occupations and commensurate
with the value of their social and economic contribution
to the community.
They also want Ted Baillieu and his Government to
demonstrate that their election commitment to make
teachers the best paid in Australia was not what it
looks like now — a cynical con job. ◆
John Graham is a research officer at the
AEU Victorian branch.
Ian Willson, a maths teacher at Fitzroy High
School, said the Government’s conditional
pay offer “sends a chill through us. To talk
about decreasing preparation time and
adding more teaching time shows the
Government has no understanding of what
we do on a day-to-day basis.”
Joanne Heyman, a Deaf teacher
of the Deaf at Pearcedale Primary
near Frankston, said funding cuts
meant deaf students’ access to
school transport at her school had
been restricted, as was her access to
professional development .
State Government funding cuts leading
to the demise of the Auslan course at
Kangan Institute also angered her.
History teacher Tim Lambert from Bundoora Secondary College stopped work
because he is sick of being treated “as being at the bottom of the food pile”. He said
the Baillieu Government was making the performance of its Labor predecessor “look
good”.
The Baillieu Government’s treatment of the profession was “death by disdain and it
won’t end here today. Kids who need the most from the education system are getting
the least.”
Principal Sue Muscat said the Government had gone “too far” in removing schools’
component of the Education Maintenance Allowance. She said that 45% of Years 7
to 10 students at Bundoora received the EMA. Bundoora’s component of this funding
— amounting to “tens of thousands of dollars” — was used to help many students
attend excursions and camps and pay for breakfast and lunch clubs, uniforms and
learning resources. Losing this money “will have a direct, significant impact on low
SES kids”.
Bundoora will lose its VCAL coordinator next year as a result of the Government’s
VCAL funding cuts. “I’ve done all I can to keep the coordinator’s position this year but
I can’t keep finding $50,000 from somewhere to pay for her,” Muscat said.
campaign
www.aeuvic.asn.au 15