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| Pay for Performance BRIEFING BULLETIN June 2006 Number 06-19 View complete bulletin [88k pdf] Pay for Performance for Teachers involves school districts basing all or a portion of a teacher's salary increase on the academic performance of their students or on the teacher's willingness to take on additional responsibilities. It continues to receive a great deal of national attention. The two most commonly mentioned pay for performance plans are located in Colorado. The Douglas County Plan was negotiated in 1994 and the Denver pilot program was negotiated in 1999 and was offered to all staff beginning in 2005. Douglas County — The Douglas County Plan was negotiated with the union in 1994. It was developed by a committee of 20 teachers and 10 appointees of the board of education. It has two main components. The first component provides a base salary for all teachers. The second component is an incentive plan that teachers may participate in. Teachers participating in the incentive component may be eligible for additional salary and will not have their base salary adversely affected. The incentive components include a group incentive, four types of outstanding teacher awards based on portfolios and national board certification, Master Teachers, and funding for participation in professional development. For additional information on the Douglas County Plan, go to www.dcft.net/teachers/performance/default.htm. Denver — The Denver program was initially negotiated with the union in 1999 as a pilot program in 15 schools. The pilot was developed by a four-person design team (two teachers and two administrators). In 2005, it was offered to all current staff on a voluntary basis. However, new teachers must participate in the new system. Salary increases are provided for additional education and for satisfactory evaluations. In addition, increases are provided for student achievement on the Iowa's, serving in a hard-to-staff school, or hard-to-staff subject area. For additional information on the Denver Plan, go to www.denverprocomp.org. Recent Developments — This year, the Board of Education in Houston, Texas voted to begin linking teachers' pay to student test scores. The union objected to the plan because it focuses too much on test scores and it would be unfair to teachers outside of the core subjects. The union also stressed the need to raise salaries for all teachers in Houston. In an effort to deal with teacher dissatisfaction with the plan, the district has asked teachers for plans on how to improve student achievement as part of the implementation of the new pay for performance plans. Unlike the Denver and Douglas county plans, Houston is attempting to get teacher buy in after adopting the plan instead of during development of the plan. In Florida, the legislature has adopted the Special Teachers Are Rewarded Plan (STAR) to encourage school districts to develop pay for performance plans based on improved student achievement as measured by state tests. School districts are developing pay for performance plans that will be funded during the 2006-07 school year. In Washington D.C., the administration and the union have agreed to a new contract that includes a pilot pay for performance plan. The pilot program is modeled after the Denver program and will offer participating teachers the opportunity to earn bonuses tied to student performance. A committee of administrators and union members will work out the details of the program. The United States Department of Education is seeking applications from state education departments and local school districts for the Teacher Incentive Fund. This fund provides grants to support efforts to develop performance based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high need school districts. Conclusion — Traditionally, teacher salaries are based on both years of experience and education level and, more recently, some union contracts have included provisions that provide additional compensation for achieving National Board Certification or for teaching in a particular school. Currently, there is a growing call to link teachers' salary directly to student performance on standardized tests. Supporters of such plans often fail to acknowledge that there are other outside factors, which a teacher has no control over, that impact student achievement, such as home environment, nutrition, and overall health. There is also no research indicating that pay for performance plans have any impact on student performance. The pilot study in Denver by the Community Training and Assistance Center(Catalyst for Change, Pay for Performance on Denver, Final Report) found performance improved in some of the pilot schools, but in others the control schools with no pay for performance improved more. One thing is clear, pay for performance plans cannot be successful if they are not formed in conjunction with the union, if they are intended to save the district money, or if they are based solely on students' standardized tests scores. DK/sh/57395 View complete bulletin [88k pdf] |
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