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President Obama has earned praise from school leaders for his focus on education, but one subject has many teachers squirming in their seats.  The president supports merit pay – compensating teachers based on how well their students perform. 

President Obama says a good education starts with good teaching.  "From the moment students enter a school, the most important factor in their success is not the color of their skin, or the income of their parents, it’s the person standing at the front of the classroom."

And the President is changing the way we look at teachers, says Alex Johnston, CEO of ConCANN, a CT education reform group. "One of the most significant things is a shift in language from talking about teacher qualifications, to talking about teacher effectiveness."

Former President Bush focused attention on training teachers before they enter the classroom in his No Child Left Behind Act. President Obama is looking at what happens once they’re there.  He says its time to reward teachers when they do a good job. "For decades, Washington’s been trapped in the same stale debates that have paralyzed progress and perpetuated our educational decline.  Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay."

Supporters say merit pay encourages talented people into teaching and motivates them to stay.   Opponents warn that linking pay to performance can pit teachers against each other and poison a school’s climate.

"Merit pay can be a very divisive issue" Connecticut Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan says there are ways to make merit pay more palatable. "Merit pay can be actually be a team based notion..that is, teams that are successful can do this. And secondly in lieu of merit, I do think that  there can be stipends awarded to people who are willing to do more work or who are willing to take on assignments where they might not otherwise be compensated."

But deciding what makes an effective teacher can be tricky.  In most cases, it means looking at the results of standardized tests.  Critics of merit pay say that encourages a narrowing of curriculum and teaching-to-the-test.  And,  limits merit-pay bonuses to those who teach English, math and science - subjects covered on the tests. What about special ed, history or foreign language instructors?  Kathy Frega is spokesperson for the CT Education Association which represents 42,000 teachers in Connecticut. "Its CEA’s understanding that any new approaches to compensation will be developed with the nation’s teachers. It will not be imposed. It will done through the collective bargaining process that gives teachers an equal voice at the negotiations table and that’s very important to us."

Meanwhile, the jury’s still out on whether merit pay works. A study released in April looks at a current program in 200 NYC schools.  All teachers earn bonuses of up to $3000 if their schools meet academic performance targets.  Early findings show merit pay has no impact on student achievement. Matthew Springer is director of The National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University which is conducting the study. "Since the 1950s we can go back and see districts experimenting with this issue.  Very few times have we paired it with a rigorous evaluation and so I think it’s too early to conclude whether this is an effective policy idea or not."