Teacher compensation is one of the most divisive issues in public educational policy as all stakeholder groups ponder the cost effectiveness of increasing teacher pay. What this issue presupposes is that our American educational system tends to underpay teachers and thusly the results of our schools reflect this lagged commitment to appropriate funding. However, critics suggest that as long as we continue to pay our worst teachers and best teachers at comparable levels, the issue is not necessarily that there is a lack of funding as much there is a lack of purposeful strategic spending to differentiate priorities within the teacher labor group as a whole. The current dominant method of pay is the single-salary schedule which is characterized as a byproduct of a labor union-influenced field that insulates our teacher workforce from substantial salary reform to protect the unexceptional majority of teachers at the expense of attracting and retaining our most valuable teachers while potentially acquiescing mediocrity for our students. The purpose of this study was to evaluate to what extent a substantial increase in teacher compensation levels may produce a positive statistically significant impact on student learning. This term of substantial compensation is not currently present in the research literature but seeks to qualify an opportunity for isolated cases of considerable deviation from existing models of compensation with extraordinary bonuses or salary levels that represent at least 150 percent of a median educator salary within a local community labor market. Two treatment schools; one new implementation in Florida and one multi-year implementation in New York, were studied and the results in student learning were compared to peer groups of schools. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed. A series of One-Sample T-Tests were utilized to detect statistical significance of the annual student growth measures compared from treatment schools among their respective peer schools. Results indicated the Florida treatment school was unable to reject the null hypothesis, but the New York treatment school demonstrated statistical significance over both years of results with a large practical significance indicating a potentially compelling opportunity that warrants additional study. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]