Teacher Compensation Reforms

Campus Report ^ | July 31, 2009 | Emily Kanyi

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Teacher Compensation Reform

by: Emily Kanyi, July 31, 2009

In the 2009 fiscal year, the Obama administration provided 200 million dollars for the Teacher Incentive Fund through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), also known as the stimulus bill, an increase from the initial 99 million dollars. The administration has also proposed a significant increase in funding for the program by requesting 487.3 million dollars for the 2010 fiscal year.

In a recent event hosted by the Center for American Progress (CAP), Robin Chait, the associate director for teacher quality at CAP, commended the government’s efforts. “We don’t know yet if this request will be successful, but at CAP we think this investment is incredibly important because it will not be possible to make significant improvements in student achievement without a dramatic overhaul of the teaching profession,” said Chait.

While referring to the single salary schedule, Chait said that teachers are under-compensated making it difficult for districts to meet their strategic goals and making it even more difficult for schools serving low-income students to attract and keep top teaching talent.

The CAP event also unveiled the release of two papers: “Aligned by Design: How Teacher Compensation Reform can Support and Reinforce other Educational Reforms,” by Craig Jerald, the President of Break the Curve Consulting and, “It’s More than Money: Making Performance-Based Compensation Work,” by Bill Slotnik, the founder and executive director of the Community Training and Assistance Center (CTAC). Speaking at the event, Jerald said that there is need to align compensation reforms to include “recruitment, selection, career progression and the basis for promotion” all geared towards “focusing on a common set of skills that the system expects of its teachers.”...