What We Know: Professional Compensation

Over the last several years, states and school districts have attempted to use a variety of financial incentives to recruit and retain teachers for low-performing, hard-to-staff schools, including signing bonuses, tuition reimbursement, housing subsidies, tax credits, and supplements for those who earn National Board Certification.

Some recent performance pay initiatives have not yet proven successful because of limited funds (bonuses amounting to only $1,500 to $2,500) and the lack of capacity and sound data needed to implement an acceptable program. To date, many performance pay plans have yielded few lasting results, and today the maldistribution of qualified and effective teachers may be as widespread as ever.

Political pressure and leadership to promote new developments in teacher compensation is beginning to emerge. The Teaching Commission, headed by former IBM chief executive Lou Gerstner, has called for the federal, state, and local governments to invest an additional $30 billion in teacher pay so that all teachers get paid more and the best teachers are most highly rewarded.

According to a recent report by the Education Commission of the States, over the last year, nine governors in their state of the state addresses spoke to the need to pay teachers differently and proposed some form of merit pay to attract and reward teachers for teaching and succeeding with lower performing students.

And with new advancements in developing more sophisticated databases and methods, some reformers, including The Teaching Commission, call for paying teachers more for the value-added statistical gains in standardized student achievement scores.

The reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA), recently passed by the House Education and Workforce Committee, will most likely earmark $100 million to help states and school districts establish pay-for-performance systems to reward teachers and principals for improving student academic achievement and closing achievement gaps between students of different racial and ethnic groups.[1]

National polling data indicate that teachers and the public are attracted to professional compensation. A 2003 poll from Public Agenda found:

• 67 percent of teachers surveyed believed that those "who consistently work harder, putting in more time and effort" should be paid more.
• 70 percent agreed that teachers who worked in low performing schools should receive additional compensation. New teachers (those with less than five years of experience) were even more likely to believe that teachers who do more and perform better should earn higher salaries.

And a more recent poll from The Teaching Commission in 2005 found:

• 67 percent of the public believes teachers should be paid extra for “gains in student achievement as measured by test results—and other indicators.”[2]
• However, only 35 percent of the general public (and 25 percent of teachers) agree that current standardized student achievement tests—like those used in high stakes accountability systems—are fair measures of what students learn and how well teachers teach.
• While the public and teachers want more accountability for the teaching profession, they are concerned that over reliance on standardized test scores may not be accurate or fair.
  

[1] In the fiscal 2006 budget request, President Bush requested $500 million for the new programs, but appropriators provided only $100 million.
[2] The Teaching Commission (2005). Americans’ Commitment to Quality Teaching in Public Schools : Findings from a National Survey Conducted by Hart-Harris for The Teaching Commission. New York : Author.