The concept of pay for performance for public school teachers is growing in popularity and use, and it has resurged to once again occupy a central role in education policy. Performance Incentives: Their Growing Impact on American K-12 Education offers the most up-to-date and complete analysis of this promising—yet still controversial—policy innovation. Performance Incentives brings together an interdisciplinary team of experts, providing an unprecedented discussion and analysis of the pay-for-performance debate by • Identifying the potential strengths and weaknesses of tying pay to student outcomes; • Comparing different strategies for measuring teacher accomplishments; • Addressing key conceptual and implemen - tation issues; • Describing what teachers themselves think of merit pay; • Examining recent examples in Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, and Texas; • Studying the overall impact on student achievement.

The first widespread incentive pay scheme was initiated in UK schools in 2000. This book is the result of monitoring the whole process from its inception. The authors visited schools, observed lessons, and solicited the views and experiences of a large collection of teachers and headteachers. Their discoveries are presented in this lively book. They include the views of teachers who were successful in crossing the threshold, those who weren't and those who chose not to apply, and headteachers who had to make the decisions. The book focuses on the following schemes: * headteachers' experiences of training * the outcomes in their own school * their relationship with external assessors * their hopes and fears for the future * their assessment of the influence on classroom practice * what did teachers change and not change in their teaching as a result of performance management * what means they employed to further their own professional development. This timely book is a useful resource for anyone involved in education, whether it be a classroom teacher, headteacher, administrator or policy-maker.

Denver's groundbreaking campaign to introduce performance-based pay for teachers captured national and international attention and has paved the way for similar efforts elsewhere. Based on unprecedented labor-management collaboration, the newly implemented ProComp compensation plan is the most advanced in the country. Each teacher's pay is based on several factors: evaluated performance, professional development efforts, and willingness to work with at-risk populations, as well as student achievement. Denver's ProComp plan has raised the debate over teacher compensation to a new level. In this book, Phil Gonring, Paul Teske, and Brad Jupp--among the key players in this successful come-from-behind campaign--offer the inside story of the ProComp initiative. They describe how entrepreneurial behavior within the teachers union and support from outside philanthropic groups propelled the plan from a cutting-edge concept into concrete policy. "ProComp has established a foundation for future efforts to change how teachers are paid. This book reveals the details of the brave effort to rethink teacher compensation through labor-management collaboration. And when it comes to education reforms, the details are precisely the toughest part." -- Adam Urbanski, Director, Teacher Union Reform Network "When the history of the triumph of pay-for-performance teacher compensation is finally written, this book will be one of the key sources. Gonring, Teske, and Jupp recount the process, explain the initiative, and foreshadow what's next for this issue. In doing so they make clear why Denver has played a signal role in this debate." -- Andy Rotherham, Cofounder and Codirector of Education Sector Phil Gonring is a senior program officer at Rose Community Foundation. He was integrally involved in ProComp's development and continues to lead the philanthropic community's efforts to implement the ProComp plan. Paul Teske is a professor of public affairs and director of the Center for Education Policy Analysis at the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. Brad Jupp is a senior academic policy advisor to the superintendent of the Denver Public Schools. Jupp served six years as a union representative and teacher leader in the effort to create ProComp.

Is your school system considering teacher merit pay? Now is the time to understand the potential benefits and pitfalls of performance-based teacher pay, as well as how today's most successful programs were developed. Drawing on substantial research with school districts, Gary Ritter and Joshua Barnett provide a step-by-step approach to setting up a merit pay system in your school district. Readers will find, An overview of existing merit pay programs and their strengths and weaknesses, A review of the 12 most common myths about merit pay and how school leaders can respond, Six guiding principles for designing a merit pay program, along with how-to's and timelines for every phase, Guidance on creating balanced assessments based on multiple measures of teacher effectiveness, developed in collaboration with teachers, Ensure that-your district's merit pay program supports teachers' professional growth, schoolwide progress, and student achievement. Book jacket.

Since its initial publication and multiple reprints in hardcover in 2005, Teachers Have It Easy has attracted the attention of teachers nationwide, appearing on the New York Times extended bestseller list, C-SPAN, and NPR's Marketplace, in additio...

This book provides an in-depth analysis of a performance-based pay initiative and crystalizes the design issues and implementation challenges that confounded efforts to translate this promising policy into practice. This story has much to say to academics and policymakers who are trying to figure out the combinations of incentives and the full range of resources required to establish incentive programs that promote an adequate supply and equitable distribution of capable and committed educators for our public schools. The book uncovers the conditions that appear to be necessary, if not fully sufficient, for performance-based initiatives to have a chance to realize their ambitious aims and the research that is required to guide policy development. In so doing, the authors consider the thorny question of whether performance-based pay systems for educators are worth the investment. “Education reformers have long known that performance-based pay is devilishly difficult to implement. All too often top-down, piecemeal changes squander scarce resources and undermine trust. Now, Rice and Malen’s first-rate study of one district’s comprehensive pay reform reveals that even well-planned, collaborative efforts easily go awry, casting further doubt on the promise of pay incentives to improve schooling. This book is required reading for all well-intentioned reformers.” —Susan Moore Johnson, Harvard University “Rice and Malen provide a compelling account of one district’s experience with a performance-based incentive program for educators. This book is a rare and valuable analysis of a policy uncovering both the technical and political challenges inherent in designing and implementing reform even under the most promising of conditions. Given the enduring interest in and ongoing federal funding available for pay-for-performance policies—and the surprising lack of research evidence undergirding this popularity—it behooves policymakers, reformers, funders, and students to learn from this important case.” —Julie A. Marsh, University of Southern California