Four Key Elements of New Teacher Compensation Systems

By Julia Koppich, November 2006

1. Pay for Knowledge and Skills

• Targeted to district needs
• Strategic use of teacher professional growth and development
• May include, for example, encouraging teachers to earn a second credential (or accumulate concentrated units) in an identified area of need, rewarding National Board Certification, or acknowledging development of teacher leadership skills (e.g., team leader, facilitator, etc.)

2. Pay for Added Professional Responsibilities

• Increased pay for assuming differentiated responsibilities
• Can lead to development of a teacher career ladder
• Responsibilities may include, for example, mentoring novices, serving as a peer reviewer, providing professional development to colleagues, or serving in other teacher leadership roles

3. Pay for Position

• Purpose to encourage well qualified teachers to choose challenging teaching assignments
• May include added pay for teaching in hard-to-staff schools and/or hard-to-staff subjects

4. Pay for Student Learning Results

• Added pay for measured student growth
• May use school-wide and/or individual teacher -related student performance measures
• Increasing reliance on a “value added” approach to measuring student learning results