Questioning a Degree’s Value

From InsideHigher ED
By Allie Grasgreen

The value of a master’s degree in education – in monetary, philosophical and educational terms – is under fire as conflicting camps are responding to increasingly high-profile criticism of merit pay systems.

The debate over how teachers are paid – and how to attract the best teachers – has been going on for years. But U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and education mega-philanthropist Bill Gates went further – perhaps not coincidentally, within two days of one another – in using recent speeches as opportunities to call on school districts to reward teachers based on their students’ performance and other measures of merit – not based on whether the teachers have earned master’s degrees.