Great Players Make Great Teams

By Scott Baum
December 14th, 2009

Supporters of free market approaches to improving public education in Boston took a hit as an arbitrator ruled that paying bonuses to teachers whose students perform well on AP exams violates their union contract. If you want the Globe’s blow by blow on this check it out. My concern is less with the specifics but the overall philosophy that appears to be behind a contract that prohibits such bonuses.

According to the Globe the teachers union claims that their opposition to bonuses is based on their belief that such incentives erode the “spirit of teamwork” that the unions feel is essential to teaching.

There is nothing wrong with teamwork. There is also nothing wrong with merit based competition. Consider team sports….clearly the Celtics feel that teamwork is very important. However they also believe in differential and merit based pay. Ray Allen makes more money than Brian Scalibrini. When Paul Pierce was named the 2007 NBA finals MVP he was a paid a performance based bonus. Teamwork and individual incentives are not mutually exclusive.

Getting back to the teachers union and AP test scores, I think that the reason unions oppose bonuses is simple. They don’t want to reinforce excellence by the individual. They prefer a brand of collectivism that allows the individual to feel comfortable producing mediocre results.

I  took several AP classes in high school and I will always remember my AP physics teahcer, Mr. Smith. His class was by far the most difficult I encountered during my four years at Winchester High School.  I took the class during my senior year and by the the time spring rolled around and the AP exam was impending, I’d already been accepted into several good colleges and my attention and effort levels were significantly waning. I was not alone in this state as a couple of my classmates were demonstrating the same symptoms of “senioritus”. I recall vivdly the almost daily comments Mr. Smith would make about me and the other slackers in front of our class. He continually pointed out that in his 20 years of teaching AP physics only one student had scored less than a 4 out of 5 on the AP exam. He would then look at me or another slacker and ask us if we wanted to join such lonely and undistinguished ranks.

I must honestly say that in the week leading up to my AP physics exam the thought that kept me studying was my desire to prove myself to Mr. Smith. When I finally took the exam, I was shocked. The test seemed ridiculously easy to me and I realized exactly how rigorous Mr. Smith’s class was. A few weeks later I learned that I had scored 5 out of 5 on the exam. Needless to say, I did some gloating.

I mention Mr. Smith because I thought of him when I read the Globe’s story about the ruling against teacher bonuses. As I read about the union’s concern about teamwork versus individual recognition I thought about Mr. Smith. He was not part of a team that taught me AP physics. He was one teacher who used his great intellect, imense energy, caring, MIT education, and time to teach every student in his class the most he possibly could.

Think about a school full of Mr. Smiths. Or even better, a school district full of such great teachers. My high school had many good teachers, but only one Mr. Smith. In fact, a lot of the other teachers seemed to think Mr. Smith was a bit nuts. After all, why would a sane person put forth so much more effort than his other coworkers, knowing that he would not recieve any additional compensation? Why would someone become so visibly emotionally invested in the performance of his students?

I guess I don’t really care why Mr. Smith decided he was going to be great at his job. It doesn’t matter what motivates him. What does matter is what Mr. Smith is able to acheive, year in and year out. He proves that a certain level of success is attainable. It is our job to recognize this potential and craft a system that encourages other teachers to do what they need to do to acheive the highest level of success.

Teamwork is a nice idea, but if all the players on your team stink, you will lose a lot of games.