Become a Community Partner!!
While urgent reform is happening across the country, THE TEACHER SALARY PROJECT wants to help you make the progressive changes you are already trying to make. Unlike most documentary films that create educational outreach plans during or after production, THE TEACHER SALARY PROJECT began creating outreach partnerships with individuals, schools, and community organizations from the writing of the book Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers, and will continue through the life of the project.
To contact us about becoming a community partner for the project, please email Tegan@theTeacherSalaryProject.org and tell us how your organization wants to be involved with THE TEACHER SALARY PROJECT. We look forward to brainstorming how we can work together!
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 "A great teacher can literally change the course of a student's life. They light a lifelong curiosity, a desire to participate in democracy, and instill a thirst for knowledge. It's no surprise that studies repeatedly document that the single biggest influence on student academic growth is the quality of the teacher standing in front of the classroom-not socioeconomic status, not family background, but the quality of the teacher at the head of the class." - Arne Duncan
Schools and districts making changes:
Find out what’s happening around the country as schools and districts take on salary reform as a way to improve the teaching profession and a way to make huge strides in our students’ achievement. We hope that these stories of innovation and reform inspire you to tackle this issue in your own community!
Washington, D.C. Schools
Washington, D.C. schools know that teacher quality can have a dramatic impact on student achievement. That's why they’re considering a proposal to entice and retain effective teachers with a new pay scale, which would include extensive bonuses and special rewards based on student achievement. Under this system, some teachers would be able to earn up to $131,000 per year! If it goes forward, the program will be regarded as a national test for teacher pay. Michelle Rhee, the chancellor of the D.C. schools, is at the helm of the push for reform. More here.
Stay up-to-date on Michelle Rhee’s progress:
Though Rhee had hoped to have contracts completed in June, negotiations remain at a standstill, with teachers divided in their support of the pay plan. Michelle Rhee and the Washington Teachers’ Union continue to battle as Rhee aims to dismiss teachers and other instructors who are deemed to be ineffective. Her dismissal plan includes “a measure that gives poorly performing instructors ninety days to improve or face dismissal.” Rhee plans to “reshape the city’s teacher corps with instructors willing to tie job security to improved student achievement.” Read more here.
Speaking to a roundtable of educators, Rhee said, “The bottom line is, we are going to bring accountability in a very significant way to the educator force in this school district.” Her increased pay proposal requires that instructors abandon tenure and spend a year on probation. Read about it here.
In August, Rhee continued to move ahead without the union’s support, and if she succeeds it will be “a watershed event in U.S. labor history.” Read more about the negotiations between the chancellor (supported by the mayor and the city council) and the Washington Teachers’ Union here.
Click here to watch PBS interviews with Michelle Rhee, George Parker (president of Washington, D.C.’s Teachers’ Union), and parents.
Arne Duncan, United States Secretary of Education
Elevating the Teaching Profession [PDF]
What Makes A Great Teacher?
www.theatlantic.com
New CEO: Gates Foundation Learns from Experiments
www.abcnews.com
"The most important factor to successful schools is excellent teachers and
supporting what they do in the classroom."
The Equity Project Charter School
www.tepcharter.org
In New York’s Washington Heights, a new charter school is attracting high-quality teachers with a base salary of $125,000. The school received over 170 qualified applications for its teaching slots and selected a dream-team of eight. Zeke M. Vanderhoek, the school’s creator and first principal, “ says he wants to put into practice the conclusion reached by a growing body of research: that teacher quality—not star principals, laptop computers or abundant electives—is the crucial ingredient for success.” The Equity Project Charter School opens in September 2009. Read more here and here. Watch one of their new teachers, Rhena Jasey, in action here.
Vaughn Next Century Learning Center
www.vaughncharter.com
In 1990, when her school’s student performance was the lowest in California and truancy was rampant, Vaughn administrator Dr. Yvonne Chan started a pilot program offering teachers bonuses based on test scores and performance evaluations. Vaughn teachers are now among the best paid in the state, and administrators have a constant stream of applicants to choose from for new positions. As a result, student performance at Vaughn is now exceeding that of similar schools around California.
Denver, Colorado
www.denverprocomp.org
In 2005, Denver citizens voted in favor of an innovative, nine-year teacher contract that "links compensation more closely with instructional outcomes for students." Teachers are evaluated periodically and are eligible to receive bonuses and salary increases based upon nine different sets of criteria ranging from student growth to working in hard-to-staff schools. The system has enabled the Denver school district to retain its strongest talent while attracting new and qualified teachers. Watch this video to find out more. Video
El Paso County, Texas
In El Paso County, increased pay for teachers has been the result of smaller school districts’ aim to be more competitive. The president of the Clint district’s school board, James Pendell, states that he is very aware of the importance of keeping teacher salaries competitive and making the job as easy and rewarding as possible.
Boise, Idaho
Tom Luna, the superintendent of public instruction in Idaho, proposed a budget plan for fiscal year 2010 that includes teacher pay increases, greater focus on math, and funding for long-standing education issues. Luna requested an average of 3.5 percent increase in teacher pay: one-third will raise the minimum teacher salary and two-thirds will fund a “pay-for-performance plan for teachers.” Read more here.
Maine
A new study by the Maine Heritage Policy Center (MHPC) suggests that the state of Maine should abandon its traditional payment system in favor of performance-based compensation. The first installment, released in June, is titled “How Alternative Teacher Compensation Systems Are Improving Student Outcomes.” The second half of the study is to be released in September and will discuss what successful models of alternative compensation for teachers will look like. Read more about what Stephen Bowen (MHPC’s director of education policy) says about the complexity of this type of systematic reform here. Read Bowen’s first installment here.
Georgia and Tennessee
Georgia and Tennessee have both passed laws that oblige schools to implement differentiated pay plans in order to attract high-quality teachers to low-performing schools.
Atlanta, Georgia
The Georgia Partnership for Reform in Science and Mathematics (PRISM), funded through a $34.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation, aims to raise both student achievement and teacher quality. PRISM works in four diverse regions of the state and seeks to increase science and mathematics achievement for all students, from preschool to twelfth grade, by enhancing teacher quality and providing incentives for teacher assignment and retention. Read more here.
A 2007 University System of Georgia report, “Math + Science = Success,” outlined the desperate need for teachers in the STEM disciplines: science, technology, engineering, and math. According to the report, out of the 4,240 teachers produced by Georgia’s public colleges and universities, “three were physics teachers and eight could teach chemistry.” To improve these numbers, the state has taken steps to “woo and keep math and science teachers.” Read more here.
Tennessee
Hamilton County’s differentiated pay plan (also known as merit or performance pay) has been around since 2002, but it has a new component this year, offering a signing bonus if teachers or principals accept a position that the district has had difficulty filling, particularly in urban, high-poverty schools. Many teachers say that the district’s differentiated pay plan is a good way to draw teachers into the lower-performing schools. Read more here.
On September 8, Karl Dean, the mayor of Nashville, outlined a major education reform plan which, among other things, offers incentives and encouragement to get the best teachers to the schools that “need them the most.” The plan includes raising money for two programs which Dean thinks can “revolutionize schools”: Teach for America and the New Teacher Project. Read more here.
Prop A in San Francisco
From 2008 to 2028, the San Francisco Unified School District will be collecting a new annual parcel tax of $198 in order to increase school funding. The money will be used to increase compensation for teachers and staff, improve training, promote accountability for teachers’ classroom practice, support recognition for teachers and schools, support teacher innovation, provide access to current technology, and allocate funds for public charter schools. The San Francisco community passed this proposition with a two-thirds majority. Read more about the plan here.
Park City, Utah Schools
www.pcschools.us
The Park City School District is now testing performance-based teacher compensation at two schools, and has opened an application process to select more schools to participate. A budget of $20 million has been approved as of July 10, 2008 to fund the program. Individual educators interested in the incentive pay must apply to the district, and provide both a plan for student improvement and a means of measuring student success.
Rethink Learning Now
Video briefing - Effective Teachers, High Achievers: Investing in a Teaching Profession:
http://rethinklearningnow.com/principles/teaching/briefing-video/
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