Status Of Teacher Performance Pay Programs Across The United States Information Capsule

Download or read book Status of Teacher Performance Pay Programs Across the United States. Information Capsule written by Christie Blazer and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.