New Directions in Teacher Compensation

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New Directions in Teacher Compensation

• First Annual National Conference on New
  Directions in Teacher Compensation and
  Performance Evaluation
• Sponsored by
• Consortium for Policy Research in Education
• Pew Charitable Trusts
• December 7, 2000

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• Based on
• Paying Teachers for What They Know and Do
• by Allan Odden and Carolyn Kelley
• Corwin Press, 1997
• CPRE Research State/Local Policy Changes
• Further information, research and cases
• www.wcer.wisc.edu/cpre
• www.tqclearinghouse.org

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Teacher Compensation Changes

• The era of the traditional single salary schedule
  may be coming to an end
• Multiple and varied innovations in teacher salary
  structures and levels all across the country

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Examples of Innovation

• Initiatives in numerous states and districts to
  raise teacher salary levels
• Iowa, Nebraska, Arizona, South Carolina,
  Philadelphia and other urban districts
• Pay for knowledge and skills
• Cincinnati, Iowa, Vaughn Charter School, Douglas
  County (CO), Coventry (RI), Menomonee Falls and
  Manitowoc (WI), England and Victoria (Australia),
  and half the states and the 50 districts that
  pay fiscal incentives for National Board
  Certification

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Use of National Board Certification

• Iowa, Ohio Wisconsin 2500 salary increase
• Georgia 5 salary increase
• Mississippi 6000 salary increase
• North Carolina 12 salary increase
• Oklahoma 5000 salary increase
• South Carolina 7500 salary increase
• Districts
• Cincinnati, OH additional 2500
• Broward County, FL 2000 salary increase
• Douglas County, CO 1000 one time bonus
• Los Angeles15 salary increase
• Long Beach 10 cost of assessment materials

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Additional Examples of Change

• School-based performance bonuses
• Kentucky, North Carolina, California, Florida,
  Dallas, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Fairfax County,
  Memphis, Colonial (PA), Denver, A schools in
  Arizona, England
• Proposed in Georgia, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin,
  Philadelphia, Arkansas,
• Higher salaries for teachers in shortage areas
• Cincinnati, San Francisco
• Incentives for teachers in high poverty or low
  performing schools
• New York City, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Fairfax
  County

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More Salary Structure Changes

• Signing bonuses and moving expenses
• Mississippi, Houston, Las Vegas
• Housing supplements
• Cincinnati, Silicon Valley
• Full retirement benefits with districts being
  able to hire back
• South Carolina, Arizona, New Mexico

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Even More Pay-Related Innovations

• Differentiated staffing and differential pay via
  Milken Foundation Teacher Advancement Program
• Florida, Arizona, South Carolina
• New standards- and performance-based teacher
  evaluation systems that could be used for pay
  differentiation
• Newport News, Reno, Coventry and dozens of other
  districts across the country

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New Directions in Teacher Evaluations

• Ability to conduct sound, valid and reliable
  performance evaluations
• National Board, INTASC and PRAXIS III
• Use of National Board standards for evaluation
• Montgomery County, MD
• Use of INTASC adaptations for evaluation
• Phoenix Union, Phoenix Elementary, Eden Prairie
  (MN)
• Use of Danielson Framework
• Newport News, Reno, dozens of other districts

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Comments on Pay and Evaluation Innovations

• Extensive scope is breath taking
• Greater variety than at any time in history
• In the main, not merit pay
• In most cases, have union and management support
• Are vehicles for higher pay levels but not across
  the board

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• Adopted by public school systems, charter schools
  and private schools
• When done well, can contribute to a stronger
  teaching profession
• As will be shown, supports standards-based
  education reform
• Matches similar fundamental pay changes in the
  private sector

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For the evaluation approaches ...

• Highly professional
• Requires standards-based judgements of behavior
  to professional standards of practice
• Sophisticated and dramatically improves typical
  evaluation practices
• Generally includes peer assessors as well as
  management assessors

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CPRE Approach to Compensation

• As a strategy to accomplish the goals of
  standards-based education reform
• As a strategy to enhance teaching as a profession
• As a strategy to raise teacher salary levels

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Standards Based Education Reform

• To teach more (most) students to high levels
  requires
• Quality teachers
• Whose instructional expertise is first rate
• And who not only believe students can learn to
  high levels but know how to instruct them so they
  do

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Professional Knowledge Base for Teaching Students
to High Standards

• How People Learn by John Bransford, Ann Brown and
  Rodney Cocking, National Academy Press, 1999
• Summarizes research from cognitive psychology on
  how students learn complex academic subject
  matter
• Summarizes research on professional development
  for teachers to teach this way

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A Knowledge Skill Continuum

• This and other research and practical knowledge
  must be organized into a knowledge and skills
  continuum, that expands and deepens over a
  teachers career

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So, to accomplish all these goals ...

• A state, its districts and the teaching
  profession must identify what teachers need to
  know and be able to do -- teaching standards --
  to educate students to state performance
  standards
• This expertise, which expands and deepens over
  time, must become the vision for pre-service
  preparation, new teacher induction, licensure,
  ongoing development, teacher evaluation --
  i.e., the education HR system must be overhauled
• including a redesigned compensation structure

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Why teacher compensation?

• The single salary schedule
• Provides salaries to all teachers in a fair way,
  but
• Is not strategically aligned with needed
  knowledge skill continuum or education goal
• Education units and degrees at best indirectly
  focused on desired teacher knowledge and skills
• Does not have a student achievement results
  element
• Not a good structure for salary increases re
  recruiting and retaining teachers

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A More Strategic Teacher Compensation System

• Knowledge and skills based pay
• pay increases for demonstrated improvements in
  knowledge, skills and expertise needed to improve
  student achievement
• School-based performance awards
• bonuses for all faculty/staff in a school that
  meets pre-set performance improvement targets
• Neither are individual merit pay
• Salary benchmarks adequate to recruit retain

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What is Knowledge and Skills-Based Pay

• Focused on individual teachers
• Pay increases based on increased professional
  expertise, i.e., performance to teaching
  standards
• Standards represent knowledge and skills needed
  to improve student performance
• Usually the basis for permanent increases in base
  pay (instead of or in addition to years of
  experience and degrees and units)

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What is Needed for Knowledge and Skills Based Pay

• Identification of knowledge and skills, or
  teaching standards linked to student standards
  and teacher career stages
• Assessments of knowledge and skills -- how to
  assess and who should do it
• Linkage to a salary schedule
• Related professional development and other system
  enablers

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What is Needed for a Standards-Based Teacher
Evaluation System

• Explicit standards for what teachers should know
  and be able to do
• An evaluation system that can identify the level
  of a teachers practice to the standards
• Professional development that is linked to the
  level of a teachers performance
• (Everything except the link to salary!)

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What Standards Do We Have?

• Have For performance-based teacher licensure
• standards PRAXIS I, II, III INTASC
• Career teaching standards ASCD Framework for
  Teaching written by Charlotte Danielson
• Accomplished teaching standards NBPTS
• (Links licensure to evaluation standards)
• Could use -- MA in license area, content
• Could also use -- expertise for a school design

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Adapt Current Teaching Standards

• Adapt Teaching Standards to
• include a variety of discernable and measurable
  teaching practice levels
• differentiate as much as possible by content area
  and student development level
• provide examples of teacher behavior for both
  different standards and behavioral levels

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The Performance Assessment Process

• Create a solid performance assessment system so
  the almost year-long comprehensive review can
  occur periodically
• Identify the evidence required for each standard
• Develop clear rubrics for making assessment
  judgements from the evidence
• Determine mix of classroom observations, videos
  of lessons, portfolios of standards-based
  instruction

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Behavioral Levels of Performance

• 1. Beginning teacher -- entry level
• 2. Basic -- effective teaching and classroom
  management
• 3. Licensure -- developing professional,
  beginning
• content specific pedagogy
• 4. Proficient -- solid array of professional
  expertise
• including mastery of content specific
  pedagogy
• 5. Advanced -- assessment instructional design
• 6. National Board Certified

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Two Major Approaches to KSBP Plans

• Redesign the entire salary schedule to include
  knowledge and skills as a core element that
  triggers major salary increases
• Keep current steps and lanes structure and add
  knowledge and skill elements

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Full KSBP Model
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Additional Knowledge and Skills

• For permanent pay increases
• License in a second subject
• License in a shortage area -- mathematics,
  science, technology
• Masters in area of license, or just content area
• Expertise for a comprehensive school design
• For one time payments, e.g.
• computer software, district provided pd classes,
• For leadership roles
• lead teacher, curriculum council chair, peer
  assessor, school mentor/coach/instructional
  facilitator

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Key Characteristics

• Compensation structure reinforces state
  district education reform goals and strategies
• Advancement across categories depends on
  increased expertise -- better instruction
• Salary is capped if professional expertise does
  not improve
• Overlap of in-service, evaluation and license
  standards, assessments/evaluation and
  compensation
• Linkage of compensation to teacher quality

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Recommendations for Policy

• Create a brand new teacher salary structure
• adopt standards for new beginning teachers, for
  career teachers experienced, accomplished
  teachers
• embed teacher licensure within the standards
• link licensure, professional development,
  evaluation and compensation to the standards
• adopt a teacher salary framework to allow the
  district to recruit and retain quality teachers

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Why this broader approach?

• Systemic focuses on improving instruction --
  the key to having all kids achieve to high
  standards
• Addresses huge arena between beginning teachers
  (licensure) and National Board Certification
• Integrates all elements of HR system --
  pre-service, licensure, recruitment, selection,
  induction, development, evaluation and
  compensation -- around effective instruction
• Improves teacher evaluation -- a huge plus
• Including pay makes entire effort real and
  serious

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And ...

• This kind of a new salary structure is an
  attractive vehicle for raising overall teacher
  salary levels
• This salary structure also could help recruit
  large numbers of new teachers -- it allows for
  quicker movement up the salary schedule and also
  offers higher salaries for the best teachers --
  so is attractive to Generation Y

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An Add-On Approach
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School Based Performance Awards

• School based
• Student performance oriented
• School goals are improvement in student
  performance, largely student achievement
• Provide pay bonuses to all professional staff
  (and sometimes others) in schools that meet
  performance improvement targets

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Creating a School Based Performance Award Program

• Identify most valued results -- achievement
• Measure results -- valid and reliable
• Calculate change and make calculations fair
• Set improvement targets
• Determine types and levels of awards
• Determine long term funding
• Establish system enablers, including KSBP

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Recommendations for Policy Initiatives -- SBPA

• Design and implement a school-based performance
  award program using the states tests and
  assessments
• Set performance improvement targets at 2-4 points
  a year best is change to a standard
• Provide 3-4 levels of awards, with the target
  award at the 2000-3000 per teacher level -- one
  higher, and two lower -- and include classified
  staff as well, prorated