Teacher’s salaries should be based on their students’ academic performance.

The statement that teacher’s salaries should be based on their students’ performance is unsound. It fails to consider possible negative consequences such as burden teachers from situations they are unable to control and grade inflation. Thus, teacher’s salaries should not be based on students’ performance for the establishment of a better educational system.

Some people may think teachers are pushed to be more responsible for students’ learning if teachers’ salaries depend on students’ academic performance; however, students’ academic performance is not entirely based on their teachers since learning is primarily a matter of personal discipline. For instance, when I was in elementary school back in China, teachers in my class were generally very concerned about students’ learning and they were literally concerned as the nightmares of several “bad students” in the class- those teachers tutored them privately after school, assigned good students to supervise them for their homework, assigned them extra homework to help them raise their grads, and called up their parents for their poor performance- but none of these strategies worked on them and their grades still suffered. Unlike other students who were willing to learn thus improve, those students simply did not like to study, did not care about their grades, and did their homework only because they could avoid being scolded by the teachers. On the other hand, the good students excelled at their academic performance without much supervision and tutoring. Therefore, no matter how responsible the teachers are, they do not have the control over students’ academic performance and should not be burdened by their salaries.

Moreover, by depending teacher’s salaries on how well the students learn may lead to the problem of grade inflation. In order to receive higher salaries, teachers may decrease the difficulty on exam and homework as well as lower the grading standard, that is, assign more “A” and “B” than “C” or “F,” for students to receive better grades. Rather than improving the teaching quality, this idea risks degrading it. Students are not able to learn much from oversimplified assignments or study plans thus may become uncompetitive in their future careers.

As a result, to avoid the risk of grade inflation in schools and avoid discouraging individuals who are talented at teaching (and have the potential to be good teachers) but afraid of the risk of receiving lower salaries, teachers’ wages should not be dependent on students.