Here’s one more bit of evidence that the push for compensation reform continues to gain political momentum (in spite of the many failed experiments strewn across the country). The policy folks at the National Governors Association and author Bryan Hassel may think they’re skirting controversy entitling their new report Improving Teaching Through Pay for Contribution. But who’s fooling whom? While paying more for merit or performance may invite bullets, few can quibble over the idea of paying for contribution.
Given that most of the literature on performance pay is recycled, this report is remarkably fresh. With its references to research done on other sectors, the report places the issue of performance pay in schools where it belongs–in the larger economic context in which every organization motivating adults to perform work competently operate. Just as schools need not be backwaters absent those features of management and compensation that characterize other modern workplaces, performance pay is not a tangential issue on which public agencies tussle with teachers unions on the sidelines of contract negotiations.
That being said, some of the report’s ‘lessons learned’ from research provided by other sectors’ experience with pay just aren’t relevant to teaching. For example, NGA uses the experiences of a multinational company as rationale for advising governors to push for annual bonuses rather than salary increases. Not only is the base pay of teachers in no way comparable to a professional working for a multinational company, but teachers can’t count on public bonus systems–as they have a long history of being withdrawn at the whim of their state legislatures.
In spite of the fact that the field is being littered with every organization’s version of how performance pay ought to be done, this report puts some relatively new ideas on the table. For example, the notion of ‘retention’ pay is added to the mix of pay reforms. It suggests that states consider giving a big boost in salary to teachers after completing a couple of years in the classroom–coinciding with the actual meteoric trajectory of a typical teacher’s effectiveness.
Bold advice from NGA. Beyond its salutary phrasing and tone, the report is an excellent compendium of the recommended features of performance-based compensation.