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GREENSBORO — Teachers could see major changes in how they are paid if North Carolina wins its bid for nearly $470 million from Washington.

Gov. Bev Perdue submitted the state’s application for a Race to the Top grant. Race to the Top is a program included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and will provide states with a four-year grant to fund major education reform efforts.

Perdue’s plan focuses on improvement in two areas: developing qualified teachers and leadership, and improving low-performing schools and districts.

If adopted, the plan would incorporate student academic growth as a factor in teacher and principal evaluations and tie it to pay. The plan does not provide a timeline for doing that.

Some groups have resisted the idea, notably the North Carolina Association of Educators and its local affiliates, including the Guilford County Association of Educators.

Teacher advocates argue there are too many factors that go into student performance beyond the teacher’s control and that not all teachers teach courses with regular testing.

Guilford County Schools pays higher salaries to some math and reading teachers working at historically low-performing schools. The program, called Mission Possible, is partly funded through a federal grant that runs out in the next school year.

Its effectiveness has been discussed often by district officials and the school board during the past year.

If Perdue’s plan is adopted, the state would provide additional support to the 132 lowest performing schools.

Principals at those low-performing schools would be removed if the school failed to show progress for two consecutive years. And if the school failed to show progress for three years in a row, the school district would turn over control of the school to the State Board of Education.

Every school district in the state signed on to the proposal but not without some apprehensions. Alan Duncan, chairman of the Guilford County school board, said Guilford County’s portion of the $470 million grant could be less than $4 million per year — not a huge sum for a district with a $650 million annual budget.

Duncan said his hope would be to further efforts in the district’s strategic plan, many of which are similar to those in the state’s proposal.

“We would attempt to make the most inroads with the funding we’re provided on the goals we have established.”

Duncan said that many of the plan’s goals and initiatives mimic those already in place in Guilford County.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com