This book provides an invaluable resource for school teachers, administrators, board members, policy makers, and citizens who would like to understand what's behind performance pay, what might work and what will not, and how to build a school improvement effort that includes teacher compensation as one of its strategies.

An increasing number of states and school districts across the country are tying teacher pay to student performance. A recent RAND Education study found that nationwide spending on teacher performance pay increased from $99 million in 2006 to $439 million in 2010. However, many states and school districts face significant hurdles when they attempt to implement incentive pay programs. In fact, some states and school districts have scaled back or even discontinued their programs because of budgetary constraints and research that has found minimal impact on student achievement as a result of performance pay programs. Critics of incentive pay programs claim that there are currently no valid and reliable student growth measures that can be used for high-stakes decisions like teacher compensation. Furthermore, states and districts have found that it is particularly difficult to develop student achievement measures with which to accurately evaluate teachers in untested grades and subjects. This report summarizes the difficulties these states and school districts have encountered. A brief summary of the status of some of the more notable teacher performance pay plans around the U.S. is also included, divided into the following three sections: States and Districts Discontinuing or Reducing Funding for their Performance Pay Programs; States and Districts Implementing New Performance Pay Programs; and States and Districts with Continuing Performance Pay Programs. Based on strong encouragement from both the federal and state governments to implement performance pay programs and in spite of the difficulties locations have encountered when launching these initiatives, this report found that many states and school districts continue to investigate the use of performance pay as a way to improve student and teacher performance. It therefore appears that compensation systems linking teacher pay to student achievement will be a part of the national educational landscape for the foreseeable future.

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.

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.

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

This book discusses various pay and compensation initiatives in use nationwide, highlighting: (1) How Are Teachers Compensated?" (current status of teacher compensation and the changing context of teaching); (2) "What Have We Learned from Attempts at Change?" (three approaches to compensating teachers, recent short-lived reform efforts, and other factors supporting compensation reform); (3) "The Elements of Pay and Compensation" (traditional pay, new approaches to pay, pay for behaviors or outcomes, and benefits as part of compensation); (4) "What Is the Relationship between Pay and Motivation?" (theories of motivation, implications of motivation theories for compensation, applications to education, and compensation factors motivating teachers); (5) "Rewarding Individual Teachers for Developing and Deploying Needed Knowledge and Skills" (knowledge- and skill-based pay and examples of such pay structures); (6) "School Bonuses for Improved Student Performance" (group-based performance awards, examples of performance awards, and gain-sharing programs); (7) "Designing and Implementing Alternative Teacher Compensation Systems" (compensation and school improvement, three design strategies, and stakeholder roles); and (8) "Compensation To Enhance Teacher Quality and Supply" (staffing and compensation challenges, issues, and innovations). Two resources present generic models of knowledge- and skill-based pay and principles for implementing change in compensation. (Contains approximately 335 references.) (SM)