TPPF COMMENTARY: Students benefit from teacher incentive pay

By Brooke Dollens Terry

Higher test scores, higher state accountability ratings, improved teacher morale, and lower teacher turnover prove that students are benefiting from teacher incentive pay in Texas.

The goal of teacher incentive pay programs is to increase student learning in the classroom. Research has conclusively found that the quality of the teacher is the most important factor in improving student learning. Therefore, it makes sense to use financial incentives to attract the best and brightest individuals to enter the classroom, reward the best teachers annually, and keep the best teachers from leaving the profession or moving into administration.

Some schools use a variety of strategies to attract and keep the best teachers teaching such as: paying math and science teachers more money with shortage stipends since there is a math and science teacher shortage; rewarding teachers who demonstrated their effectiveness through large gains in student learning with a large financial bonus; and encouraging teachers with a financial stipend to take on a difficult teaching assignment in a low-performing school.

Since Texas has the largest incentive pay program in the nation, many policymakers are understandably looking to Texas for answers. Does incentive pay help good teachers stay in the profession? Has incentive pay helped improve teacher morale at the school? Are students learning more?

Houston ISD, Texas’ largest school district and America’s seventh largest, uses a performance pay plan called ASPIRE to reward teachers based both on school and individual teacher performance. This year, Houston teachers will have a chance to earn an extra $10,000 in bonuses under the district’s pay-for-performance plan.

Thus far, Houston ISD credits its pay-for-performance plan as a key factor in more teachers choosing to stay and work in the district, less turnover, higher student test scores on the state’s standardized test, almost double the number of schools with the two highest state accountability ratings over the previous year, and improved teacher morale.

In 1995, Lamesa ISD, a small school district in West Texas, was the first Texas district to implement a teacher incentive pay plan. This year, teachers and school administrators are eligible to earn an additional $2,400 a year for improving student learning in core subject areas (reading, writing, math, science, and social studies), meeting student attendance targets, increasing the number of high school graduates, and achieving one of the top state accountability ratings.

Lamesa ISD reports tremendous gains in test scores at the elementary, junior high, and high school levels. The increase in reading, math and science scores for Hispanic, African American, and economically disadvantaged students is impressive. The district also reports improved morale among teachers and uses the incentive pay plan as a recruiting tool.

The early results of incentive pay in Texas are promising. Yet most school districts still use an outdated and ineffective model that compensates teachers regardless of results in the classroom. Giving all teachers an across-the-board pay raise tied to a uniform salary schedule will not produce similar student achievement gains to Houston and Lamesa.

Nationwide, 93 percent of all public school districts use a salary schedule to pay its teachers. The salary schedule treats all teachers the same whether they teach math or physical education; whether they are extremely effective or merely mediocre teachers. It rewards years of experience or seniority over effectiveness, does not take into account labor market trends or teacher shortage areas, and does not reward teachers for teaching in difficult situations such as low-performing schools.

Changing the teacher compensation structure to include pay-for-performance bonuses would send a signal to teachers that gains in student learning are rewarded over seniority. It would also give average teachers a financial prod to improve their skills and performance in the classroom.

In addition, if teachers want to be paid on par with other professional jobs and treated like professionals, then they need to be paid in similar manner as other professionals. This means paying some teachers more than others for teaching subjects in high demand like physics or calculus and paying teachers extra for taking on a difficult assignment.

The current salary structure is broken and throwing more money at it won’t fix it. Instead, lawmakers need to support compensation structures that treat teachers like professionals, target local needs, and reward and retain the best teachers. Only then will we see large gains in student learning and move towards closing the achievement gap.

Brooke Dollens Terry is an education policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.

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TPPF COMMENTARY: One Salary Doesn’t Fit All

Good morning.

Last month, the Texas Public Policy Foundation released the report, "Bringing Teacher Compensation into the 21st Century," which is available online at www.TexasPolicy.com. In this commentary, Foundation education policy analyst Brooke Terry lists the flaws in the single salary schedule used by the vast majority of school districts and makes the case for replacing it with a compensation system that recognizes and rewards outstanding classroom achievement.

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One Salary Doesn’t Fit All

By Brooke Dollens Terry

As the cost of food, fuel, and electricity continues to increase, school officials inevitably face trying to do more with less. Rising costs and the current pay structure prevents many school districts from giving great teachers a much deserved raise.

The solution is easy; school officials can give their star teachers considerably more money, without raising taxes, by modernizing their teacher pay system.

Salaries and benefits consume between 80 and 85 percent of Texas school district budgets, according to a 2006 Moak Casey and Associates report. Yet many school districts restrict their own flexibility to reward great teachers by paying according to an antiquated single salary structure.

Nationwide, 93 percent of public school districts pay teachers based on a single salary schedule, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Texas has a statewide minimum single salary schedule, and many Texas school districts use their own salary schedule. Designed more than 85 years ago, the single salary schedule is rigid, archaic, and unnecessary.

The salary schedule is a chart that specifies the amount a teacher will be paid for each year of experience in the classroom, with small step increases for each additional year of experience or advanced degree. Those two components reward teachers for longevity and advanced degrees – neither of which has been shown to improve teacher quality or increase student learning.

The research is clear. Teacher performance does not improve with each additional year in the classroom after the first couple of years. Eric Hanushek, a well-respected education researcher with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, finds that a teacher with 15 years of experience is no more effective than a teacher with five years of experience.

Secondly, research finds that an advanced degree does not contribute to increased learning in the classroom. Research by Hanushek and Steven Rivkin finds that possession of a master’s degree or doctorate degree has no impact on teacher effectiveness. Nonetheless, many salary schedules and school districts reward teachers for additional degrees with an extra $1,000 or more each year as though it led to higher student achievement.

Another flaw of the salary schedule is that it pays all teachers the same salary at each step on the schedule without regard for subject matter or classroom effectiveness. All teachers are not the same.

One teacher may be an extremely passionate and challenging teacher who works hard to engage and teach her students, while another teacher down the hall might be burned out and put forth as little effort as possible. Should these teachers be paid the same? Under the salary schedule, if they both taught for the same number of years, they would be paid the same salary regardless of their impact on student learning.

Performance and results are commonly rewarded in the private sector via bonuses and raises tied to positive performance reviews. The same should hold true for education. Outstanding teachers add incredible value to student achievement and deserve to make more money.

Anyone associated with a school -- students, parents, teachers, and principals -- can identify the good teachers. While this sounds like common sense, education associations argue that it is impossible to measure teacher effectiveness fairly, and therefore all teachers, regardless of skill, should get paid the same.

With research clearly demonstrating that paying teachers off a salary schedule does not improve student learning or reward effectiveness, policymakers and school officials may want to rethink their teacher pay structures to ensure they are rewarding and recognizing excellent teachers.

The best way for state lawmakers to increase local control and flexibility over school budgets is by getting rid of the statewide minimum salary schedule.

School officials and publicly elected school board members can use their resources more wisely and effectively and give outstanding teachers a raise by restructuring their teacher compensation systems and not paying teachers off of a single salary schedule. School officials need to do everything they can to keep outstanding teachers in the classroom and giving them a much deserved raise is one way to reward and keep them in the classroom.

Brooke Dollens Terry is an education policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.

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To leave your opinion click on the word "COMMENT(S)" below