Merity Pay
by
Jeffrey Leverich, Ph.D., Educator Compensation Institute Contributing Editor
Three beliefs are necessary for one to support merit pay: (1) that individual bonuses are a proven strategy to boost performance; (2) that standardized test scores are an accurate measure of teacher effectiveness; and (3) that placing a greater emphasis on standardized testing will lead to improvements in educational quality and student achievement.
Unfortunately for its advocates, merit pay systems fail on all three counts.
Full Report
Creating a Successful Performance Compensation System for Educators
July 2007
In its recent report, the Working Group on Teacher Quality asserts that well prepared, high-quality teachers are essential if we are to ensure that all students achieve the high standards necessary to lead fulfilling lives and become productive citizens.
The report goes on to identify crucial elements the Working Group believes are necessary to make performance-pay systems work in schools including 4 design elements and 6 implementation recommendations.
Design Elements
Ongoing, Job-Embedded Professional Development
Performance-Based Compensation
Evaluation Based on Professional Standards
Career Advancement Opportunities
Implementation Recommendations
Sufficient and Stable Funding
Communication and Teacher Buy-In
Skilled Leadership
Target High-Need Schools and Subjects
Include a Progrm Evaluation and Monitoring System
Integrate and Align Other Systems to Compensation System
Full Report
Center for American Progress
Teacher Compensation in Charter and Private Schools
February 6, 2007
This paper examines teacher compensation policies in charter and private schools for lessons to help traiditonal public schools attract and retain high quality teachers. The findings suggest:
Private and charter schools often do not use a traditional salary schedule based on years of experience and education.
Private and charter schools are more likely than district schools to tie pay to student performance.
Private and charter schools are more likely to use building-based performance awards determined by the principal.
Pirvate and charter schools often use financial incentives to fill hard-to-staff positions.
The paper goes on to recommend that "policymakers could work to make teacher pay more performance- and mark-driven, but still within the context of a formulaic, schedule-based approach. Policy changes could include pay-for-performance based on value-added test score growth, higher pay for filling hard-to-staff posibions, higher pay for teaching in hard-to-staff schools, or any number of other approaches to 'paying for contribution' rather than just for experience and degrees."
Executive Summary and Link to Full Report
Teacher Performance Pay: Synthesis of Plans, Research, and Guidelines for Practice
CPRE - Consortium for Policy Research in Education
Full Report
National Institute for Excellence in Education
Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) Teachers, Schools Demonstrate Higher Achievement Growth Than Controls
Research conducted by the National Institute for Excellence in Education, the organization that operates TAP, concludes that teachers and schools participating in TAP produce higher student achievement growth than their control counterparts. Comparisons also show TAP's meaningful results in terms of adequate yearly progress (AYP), and its support among teachers as an effective professional development program. The authors acknowledged that a true test of the program would come from a study independent from the program itself.
Executive Summary and Full Report