Performance-Based Compensation: Design and Implementation at Six Teacher Incentive Fund Sites

Publication Date: August 2010

Publisher: The National Institute for Excellence in Teaching

Author(s): Jonathan Eckert

Research Area: Education

Keywords: teacher performance; education policy; school funds; student achievement

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

With the enactment of the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) in 2006, the federal government initiated an effort to support innovative approaches that compensate teachers and principals based on effectiveness. A total of 33 TIF grantees across the country are implementing performance based compensation systems in a variety of ways. Six TIF sites that had promising preliminary data were selected for the study.

The study finds that these sites have preliminary indicators showing increased student achievement, wide stakeholder support, improvements in recruitment and retention, and positive changes in school cultures. Through interviews, focus groups, data analysis, and site-based observations, practitioners involved in these projects describe the importance of performance based incentives; the need to align incentives, supports, evaluation, and advancement to accountability; the impact of incentives on recruitment and retention of effective educators at high-need schools; and improvement in student learning and school cultures.