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Performance pay inches closer

My Spider-sense (I do love comic books) seldom fails me (See my post from earlier today). Here’s the press release from the district sent out this afternoon.

Greensboro, N.C. – Guilford County Schools (GCS) is hosting four forums to discuss the idea of paying employees additional incentives based on performance and other strategic compensation issues. Two of the forums will be for teachers and GCS employees and two will be for community members.

The forums are part of the district’s efforts to inform the community about new research showing the relationship between teacher quality and compensation. During the forums, participants will talk about how to ensure GCS recruits and retains high-quality employees, and how to ensure employees are rewarded for improving student achievement.

Nov. 16 at 5 p.m.

Public Forum for Employees

Smith High

Nov. 23 at 11:30 a.m.

Public Forum for Community

Southwest High

Nov. 18 at 5 p.m.

Public Forum for Employees

Southwest High
Nov. 23 at 5 p.m.

Public Forum for Community

Smith High

In September, GCS hosted a forum for school board members, state representatives, school administrators and community members to discuss this issue. The forum, titled “Measuring What Matters: Paying for Teacher Quality,” was funded by the Center for Educator Compensation Reform through the U.S. Department of Education. GCS hopes the upcoming forums will allow the district to get more feedback about strategic compensation for all teachers and other school-based employees.

“As we continue to explore the idea of paying teachers incentives based on performance, we want as many voices in the room as possible,” said Dr. Amy Holcombe, executive director of talent development for GCS.

Nationwide, teachers are traditionally paid on a single salary schedule with standardized increases based on years of experience, advanced degrees and certification levels. School districts on average spend about 35 percent of their teacher compensation budgets on these standard increases. However, traditional schedules do not take into account student achievement, nor do they provide motivation or rewards for elevated levels of school or teacher effectiveness.

During the 2006-07 year, GCS launched Mission Possible, a comprehensive teacher incentive plan that combines multiple components to keep and attract highly effective teachers and administrators for the ultimate goal of increasing student achievement in schools with critical needs. Teachers in testing grades at these 30 schools are eligible for annual performance incentives.

So far, Mission Possible has helped recruit highly qualified teachers to these schools. In fact, 100 percent of math positions were staffed on the first day of school this year. Additionally, teacher and principal turnover has decreased and school climate has improved based on annual faculty and parent surveys. However, when it comes to student achievement, there are still some fluctuations in reducing the gap between Mission Possible and non-Mission Possible schools.

In the district’s strategic plan, which launched in January, a strategy calls for evaluating and refining a pay structure that recognizes the need to differentiate compensation for hard-to-fill positions. This year, GCS is evaluating the impact of Mission Possible and other differentiated compensation structures and also examining the current compensation package for all hard-to-fill areas.