Guilford County Schools’ program of merit-based pay for teachers has increased test scores and graduation rates, but teachers’ unions call the model unfair and, instead, support across-the-board salary increases for school personnel.
Two years ago, Guilford County became the only school district in the state to use a comprehensive pay-for-performance strategy. The program, Mission Possible, is designed to attract and retain qualified teachers and reward them for hard work in the classroom. It offers recruitment incentives from $2,500 to $10,000 and retention bonuses from $2,500 to $5,000 for teachers who produce above-average results in low-performing, low-income schools.
A mix of federal, state, and local money funds the program. It stands in contrast to the approach taken by most N.C. school districts, which typically use a system of uniform salary increases and bonuses, regardless of individual teacher performance.
While districts tend to shy away from performance-pay strategies, North Carolina has dabbled in similar statewide initiatives in the past. Instructor bonuses are tied to the results of the ABCs of Public Education, an end-of-year testing program. Teachers get $750 in bonuses if their schools meet growth expectations on the tests and up to $1,500 if it exceeds growth expectations. The strategy does not offer incentives to individual teachers for performance improvement, as Mission Possible does.
A John Locke Foundation report released in September explored the performance of the 30 Guilford County schools that participated in the Mission Possible program last school year. Terry Stoops, JLF education policy analyst, concluded that the schools fared better in several performance benchmarks.
“Teacher and administrator turnover has decreased, the percentage of schools that met No Child Left Behind performance standards increased, and the percentage of students who met North Carolina testing standards increased,” Stoops said. “Graduation rates are on the rise, and the school climate has improved considerably.”
The N.C. Association of Educators, however, has criticized the initiative. “It’s not fair, and it begins to pit teacher against teacher,” said NCAE Associate Executive Director Kelvin Spragley, according to The News & Observer of Raleigh. “All teachers should be paid more, and that will entice more people to the profession in all subjects.”
National teachers’ unions also opposed merit-based teacher pay. The National Education Association, which ranked North Carolina 26th among the states in average teacher salary for the 2004-05 school year, calls merit pay a “scheme” and says it forces teachers to compete rather than cooperate.
But supporters of merit-based pay say that strategies such as Mission Possible generate many benefits.
“Mission Possible allows us to leverage federal and local dollars to recruit and retain qualified teachers in our hardest to staff areas,” said Amy Holcombe, senior director of the program. “If we were to disperse our available funds using an across-the-board teacher pay model, it would dilute our ability to offer attractive salary incentives to the teachers in our areas of greatest shortage.”
In response to the NCAE’s position that merit-based teacher pay is unfair, Holcombe said, “Our job as a school system is to do what is best for our students. In order to achieve that goal, we need to examine issues from the perspective of equity, not equality.”
Positive outcomes
An evaluation of Mission Possible by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro found improvements in a number of areas. Faculty turnover and short-term suspensions fell. Graduation rates, performance composites, and test scores increased.
The schools participating in the program, all of which are low-income, still lagged behind district averages in Guilford County. Stoops said that trend is expected because the schools have only been in the program for two years.
“Most schools in Guilford County don’t have as many at-risk students as those participating in Mission Possible, so the difference isn’t surprising,” he said. “It’s also going to take a little time for the program to get in the groove.”
Other research indicates that teacher morale has increased because of the program. The 2008 North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey showed improvements in four domains of teacher satisfaction: time, facilities, leadership, and professional development.
Guilford County’s performance-pay approach is significant, because it is the most comprehensive of its kind in North Carolina, Stoops said. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, the state’s second largest school district, has a longstanding bonus program that awards teachers and administrators based on various criteria, but most districts tend to favor a uniform pay structure.
“Other school districts are watching how Guilford performs,” Stoops said. “The results of the program are going to generate a lot of attention in the coming years.”
New set of leaders
Political changes brought about by the 2008 elections could influence merit-based pay in North Carolina and around the nation.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Gov.-elect Bev Perdue, a Democrat, indicated that she is open to the idea of giving teachers incentives for joining rural schools. Her Web site says that districts should have the freedom “to work with their teachers to develop promising recruitment and retention incentives with monies from the Disadvantaged Students Supplemental Fund and Low Wealth Fund.”
Perdue’s Republican opponent in the election, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, supported paying more to teachers who specialize in high-demand subjects. Perdue, who was endorsed by the NCAE, won the race 50 percent to 47 percent.
President-elect Barack Obama also has indicated support for merit-based teacher pay. Obama’s Web site says that under his plan, “Districts can reward teachers who work in underserved places like rural areas and inner cities. And if teachers consistently excel in the classroom, that work can be valued and rewarded as well.”
David N. Bass is associate editor of Carolina Journal.