Posted on October 24th, 2008 by jkelly
USA Today reports that in eight states, some school districts are adopting experimental teacher-pay packages. Under the new pay packages, teacher compensation is determined by student performance; teachers are offered front-loaded higher salaries and bonuses if student tests scores improve or if teachers work in hard-to-staff schools. A research center launched at Vanderbilt University has [...]
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Posted on October 23rd, 2008 by arodden
As SMHC is completing case studies of leading edge districts and organizations focused on recruiting top teacher and principal talent into urban schools, teacher and principal residency programs are emerging as one important component of a multi-faceted set of strategies. The Boston Teacher Residency Program has been identified as one of the best such programs [...]
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Posted on October 20th, 2008 by arodden
Education Week reports that Minnesota Governor and SMHC Task Force Chair Tim Pawlenty is putting forth an ambitious teacher quality improvement plan. Under Gov. Pawlenty’s “Teacher Transformation Act,” all districts would be required to tie annual teacher pay increases to student performance; enforce tighter admission standards for teacher education programs; actively recruit mid-career professionals from
other [...]
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Posted on October 17th, 2008 by jkelly
Scholastic Administrator has some SMHC-relevant resources in their September/ October 2008 issue:
The Outsourced District
In The Outsourced District, administrators needed more help for their district than could be found within the school systems boundaries. In response, they opened the door to new ideas. The result is a convergence of outside organizations partnering with the district to [...]
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Posted on October 14th, 2008 by jkelly
In an article in today’s Philadephia Inquirer, SMHC acts as a resource for the 20th most widely circulated paper in the country, in one of our country’s largest urban school districts. The article discusses a common problem in many districts–that of staffing schools. Allan Odden, SMHC co-director, provides information on the comprehensive hiring strategies [...]
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Posted on October 14th, 2008 by arodden
Today, SMHC releases the fifth paper in the series on teacher compensation. Building on the first four installments, this paper articulates the importance of making changes to teacher compensation
as part of an overall strategic plan for improvement, rather than merely because it is the “reform of the moment.” The paper also estimates the costs of [...]
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Posted on October 10th, 2008 by arodden
The National Center on Teacher Quality recently noted a paper by Duke University economist Jacob Vigdor who wrote that top pay is reached in many fewer years (10-12) by individuals in other professions compared to the typical teacher’s single-salary schedule that requires teachers to wait 20-30 years before reaching the top of the scale. This [...]
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Posted on October 6th, 2008 by arodden
SMHC today released its forth paper in a series, How to Pay Teachers for Student Performance Outcomes, by Anthony Milanowski. The paper discusses the third key element in a modernized teacher compensation system, variable pay. Variable pay, also often called incentive pay, or pay for results, is typically based on some measure of worker or [...]
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Posted on October 2nd, 2008 by arodden
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that teachers in Cincinnati Public Schools recently received incentive pay checks of between $500 and $1,000 for helping students at struggling elementary schools by improving student performance and raising attendance levels. The pilot program is using funds from the federal Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) for the Teacher Advancement Program, or TAP, which provides [...]
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Posted on October 1st, 2008 by jkelly
The Boston Globe reports on “…a new program at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth that is sending a small army of math and science teachers to Fall River and New Bedford. After a crash course in taking the qualification test, they obtain their teacher licenses and begin immediately running their own classrooms, earning full [...]
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