Social Norms Beat Market Norms

[Hannah Bell]

One of the most interesting books I have read in recent months is Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. I was particularly interested in Chapter 5, where he explains the difference between social norms—where people act because they are motivated by a sense of idealism or purpose, and market norms—where people act because they are motivated by a desire for more money...

I realized that the goal of the corporate education reform movement is to push market norms into education. The corporate reformers assume that teachers aren't working hard enough and will work harder if they have the lure of more money and if they compete with one another. Ariely's studies say this is wrong, and it won't work...

Curiously, the corporate reform movement likes to talk about data-driven decisions, but they ignore any data that doesn't support what they want to do... when the Vanderbilt study of merit pay (showing it didn't work) was published, the U.S. Department of Education immediately released nearly $500 million for—what else—more merit-pay programs... when data from Milwaukee showed that vouchers don't improve test scores in either public schools or voucher schools, the corporate reformers didn't care... When USA Today produced evidence of widespread cheating, the corporate reformers refused to recognize that their policies encourage the pressures that lead to cheating...

If we drive out those who are motivated by social norms, who will teach? How can we hope to have a stable education profession if we lose those who want to make education their career knowing full well that they will never get rich?

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2011/04/dear_deborah_one_of_the_1.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BridgingDifferences+%28Education+Week+Blog%3A+Bridging+Differences%29