I recently wrote about the misalignment of the step and lane single salary schedule with student outcomes.    I also wrote about the historical reasons for the single salary schedule, and noted that it brought about positive change in the early 1900s.

In our current day and age, we know that attracting, rewarding, and retaining Great Teachers is critical if we want to have great schools.   In today’s post we will look at four talent challenges that school systems face.  And we see how a single salary schedule gets in the way of addressing those challenges. Continue reading →

For the past month, I have been writing about Rewarding Great Teaching.  How do we attract, develop, retain and especially reward Great Teachers?  (See my series intro here.)

The step and lane pay system rewards masters degrees and experience.  But research in the last 15 years has repeatedly shown that neither additional degrees nor more years of experience (beyond the first 5) lead to greater student achievement.    So if we want to financially reward Great Teachers , step and lane is not the answer.   Perhaps there is a different credential that does reliably signal high quality teaching?  Continue reading →

In an earlier post, I described the step and lane system of pay.  Step and lane, also known as the single salary schedule, is used in 96% of public school districts in the US, and covers virtually all public school teachers.

How did we get this system of pay?  And why has it endured for 100 years? Continue reading →

Incentives are a powerful motivator of human behavior.  And because they are so powerful, we both use and encounter incentives almost daily.  Our email in-boxes are filled with incentives to shop right now (“save 50% today only”).  Governments have established “sin taxes” to discourage the use of alcohol and tobacco.   And as parents we use all kinds of incentives to encourage the right behavior in our children (not all of which are effective!) Continue reading →

In early December, I started a new series called “Rewarding Great Teaching”.  The intro post to the series is here.  Last week I wrote about the enormous impact great teachers can have on our students.

Today we look at teacher pay.  How do we compensate and reward teachers at UCF?   Continue reading →

In this series we are looking at high quality teaching  (see the series intro here).    We know intuitively that having a great teacher is important.   In this post, we examine in economic terms how much great teaching is worth.  How much additional value do great teachers add to their students? Continue reading →

We intuitively know that teachers have a huge influence on student achievement.  Every day it is teachers who are with our students bringing order to the day, delivering lessons, stimulating learning, modeling learning behaviors, and personalizing instruction to each child’s needs. Great teachers engage their students, excite them about learning, and deliver content in interesting ways. Students are changed by great teaching – their curiosity is activated, they engage more deeply with the material, and they make connections between their prior experiences and what is being taught. The result is more learning, more growth, and higher academic achievement.

Continue reading →