PERFORMANCE PAY

PAYING TEACHERS for improved student performance can lead to better schools. Cynics might have held that truth to be self-evident, but researchers at the Community Training and Assistance Center (CTAC) didn't. And they conducted a four-year study in the Denver public school system to investigate. The results of their study, published in Catalyst for Change: Pay for Performance, could fundamentally change the way public schools operate and help fill the pipeline into engineering programs.

Implemented in 13 percent of Denver public schools, the study had teachers set two educational objectives, approved by their principals, for their students. Teachers received a bonus if students met them by year's end. The result: The reading and writing test scores of middle and high school students in the study rose significantly compared with their peers.

In discussing the results, William J. Slotnik, executive director of CTAC and lead author of the study, maintained that any pay-for-performance program must be supportive of teachers and recognize that monetary bonuses are only part of teacher motivation. Failed teacher remuneration efforts in the past, he said, "were based on the belief that compensation is the primary incentive for teachers to perform at high levels...Others were designed to punish teachers who were labeled as underperforming."

The Denver study was conducted within the context of districtwide reforms that offer hope for troubled schools around the country. "The Denver pilot has provided a wealth of learning that will shape practice nationally," Slotnik said.

Although encouraging and poised to impact teaching across the country, pay for performance needs to be applied carefully. "Pay for Performance is neither a silver bullet nor a magic wand," Slotnik cautions.

Copyright American Society for Engineering Education Summer 2004
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