Some Washington-area school districts are experimenting with extra pay for high-performing teachers, but a new report calls the practice into question.
In Prince William County, school board member Grant Lattin recently drafted a proposal to have staff look into performance pay options — bonuses for teachers in tough-to-staff schools or subjects, for example. Or pay tied to improved student test scores.
The local teachers union, while cautious, is working with the board. Nationally, unions have long maligned the idea.
“We are happy to be in the conversation,” said Bonnie Klakowicz, who represents Prince William’s nearly 4,000 teachers and school staff. But she cited several concerns addressed in the report, published by the Economic Policy Council and finding merit pay “pitfalls” for districts.
Purely test-based accountability is “fraught with perverse consequences,” the report said, including a disadvantage for schools with the most challenging students and a de-emphasis on student-development measures not subject to standardized tests.
To address that, Klakowicz said she would like any Prince William plan to avoid purely test-based results. In Prince George’s County, which consistently scores better only than Baltimore among Maryland districts, about 100 teachers and 40 administrators are finishing the first year of a pilot merit-pay program. The school board has been happy enough with the plan to draft a permanent policy.
Teachers can earn up to $10,000 extra in one year, while principals can earn $12,500. The voluntary program, which was developed in collaboration with the teachers union, rewards educators in hard-to-staff schools and subjects whose students post significant gains, and who submit to “rigorous professional evaluation.”
