I would love y'alls opinion on this argument essay. Thanks a bunch!

Teachers' salaries should be based on their students' academic performance.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.

An effective teacher is priceless. A teacher that can build relationships, get high scores, and inspire their students is incredibly valuable. However, there are many factors that are outside of a teachers’ control. Teachers control only a small part of what impacts a student’s education and academic performance. Therefore, teachers’ salaries should not be tied to academic performance because doing so ignores the impact socioeconomic factors have on students and disproportionately punishes teachers who work in hard to serve schools.

Unfortunately, a student’s success is not easily tied to their teacher’s actions. Socioeconomic factors play a crucial role in the academic success of a student. Students who attend Title I schools are negatively impacted by a myriad of problems that extend well beyond their teacher’s control. Students who grow up in poverty enter elementary school with a deficit of a million words compared to their affluent counterparts. Many Title I schools lack the resources necessary to provide students with an education equal to that of their wealthier peers. Furthermore, Title I schools witness high staff turnover rates, and often rely on newly hired inexperienced teachers. These factors all negatively impact a student’s academic performance, and they are out of the control of their current teachers. Whether a student passes a state test has some to do with their current teacher, but more to do with their past educational experiences and socioeconomic factors.Tying a teacher’s pay to academic performance is unfair given how little control the teacher has over the factors that influence education (poverty, family background, which school a student attends, etc…). Tying pay to academic performance puts too much emphasis on the current teacher’s role, and ignores many of the other issues impacting education.

Similarly, tying teacher pay to academic performance disproportionately punishes teachers who work in Title I communities. Teachers who choose to work with at-risk students have to deal with issues that teachers who work in affluent communities do not. Teachers in affluent communities often have students who read on or above grade-level, high levels of parent involvement, students have access to outside tutoring, and their students to do not have the same socioeconomic struggles as at-risk students (things such as food insecurity, parental incarceration, immigration issues, etc…). By tying pay to academic performance, teachers are disincentivized to work in at-risk schools, given that they will likely have lower test scores due to systemic issues. Unless a model of tying pay to academic performance can account for structural inequalities and focuses on student growth, rather than passing or failing state exams, teachers who teach in privileged areas will be compensated higher than their counterparts who work with at-risk youths. Not all classrooms start off equal give the structural inequalities that students face, and by tying performance and teacher pay states are disinstivicing teachers to work with students who are already behind.

However, that does not mean tying pay to academic performance won’t incentivize some teachers to work harder. Systems are currently in place in many districts that reward teachers for reaching certain levels on their evaluations, and student performance is usually part of this equation. When measured effectively, these evaluations take into account various factors and often focus on student growth rather than passing or failing. This type of evaluation is promising, however it still disproportionately impacts Title I teachers. The one size-fits all district evaluations ignore the interworking and struggles of individual schools. It lumps together teachers in affluent areas with those in impoverished ones. Overall, there still hasn’t been an effective way to marry student performance and teacher pay in a way this equitable. Until a more individualized and nuanced evaluation system can be constructed, tying teacher pay to academic performance isn’t fair for teachers.

In conclusion, tying teacher pay to academic performance may seem like a way to motivate teachers, but it ignores the myriad of factors that contribute to a student’s education. Tying pay to performance hurts teachers who work with at-risk students, and benefits teachers who work in affluent areas with access to more resources. Until America’s education system is more equitable and larger systemic issues have been resolved, tying teacher pay to academic performance will remain unfair.