SMHC

On Tuesday, July 14, the Center for American Progress held an event on leveraging compensation reform for school improvement. The panelists included Craig Jerald, president of Break the Curve Consulting. Jerald’s 2009 report, “Aligned by Design: How Teacher Compensation Reform Can Support and Reinforce Other Educational Reforms,” is the best new writing on teacher compensation based on strategic HR strategies in the private sector. His work draws on the Consortium for Policy Research in Education’s (CPRE) decade and a half of research on new approaches to teacher compensation, performance and standards-based teacher evaluation systems, HR alignment, and strategic human capital management.

“Aligned by Design” shows that an effective teacher compensation systems needs to be aligned with other parts of the human capital management system. To demonstrate this, Jerald examines the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP). TAP successfully aligns compensation systems with other parts of the human capital management system by carefully employing strategies that include teacher evaluation, ongoing professional development, and differentiated pay to create “teacher-leaders” who help improve teacher evaluations, professional development, and school improvement planning.

Jerald’s paper is a must read for federal policymakers revising regulations for the federal TIF program; for state policymakers considering new approaches to new teacher compensation systems; and districts looking to position teacher compensation reform as part of talent and human capital management reform.

Filed under: Education Community News