Teacher attrition continues to be a major issue in public education today. Keeping schools staffed with quality teachers is a struggle across the United States. Hard to staff, low-income schools see the highest attrition rates among public schools. This phenomenological qualitative study explored teachers' experiences with the Teacher Incentive…

This qualitative study investigated what factors kept teachers committed to teaching in one rural east Texas school district despite the perceived educational inequalities of rural districts compared to suburban and urban districts. When it comes to teacher retention, rural school leaders cite school environment and community lifestyle…

This paper examines the perspectives of Jamaican teachers on performance-based evaluation as a mode of compensation for Jamaican teachers. The paper is written against the backdrop of continued unsatisfactory results of the Jamaican Education System. In 2015, having completed inspections of all 953 public schools, the National Education…

Public school teaching is a profession in transition. Already the largest occupation in the United States, it is expanding faster than the nation's student population. Teachers of color are entering the profession at twice the rate of white teachers, reversing an exodus after civil rights victories opened many other doors to African Americans. And…

Pay-for-performance is a popular public education reform, but there is little evidence about the characteristics of a well-designed incentive pay plan for teachers. Some of the literature suggests that effective incentive plans must offer relatively large awards to induce behavioral changes. On the other hand, the experimental economics literature…

This narrative inquiry traces a beginning teacher's unfolding career over a six-year period in a diverse middle school in the fourth largest city in the USA. The work revolves around two conceptualizations: "stories to live by" and "stories to leave by." How these identity-related phenomena surface and play out in an…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the perceived motivators contributing African American educators' decision to migrate from a suburban school district to an urban school district. The case study approach was used in an effort to capture the participants' voices and the motivators contributing to their decision to migrate to an…

Half of all teachers might be moonlighting, working at a part-time job in addition to their main job as teachers, and that has consequences for their teaching jobs. Moonlighting interferes with their daily instruction and with their ability to collaborate with other educators. Moonlighting also can contribute to a less positive attitude about…

The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the degree to which teachers' age, perceptions of fair pay, receipt of employer-sponsored health insurance, and administrative support, as operationalized by the Competing Values Framework, predicted antecedents of turnover. Teachers' thoughts of leaving their current job and commitment to a center…

Although there is a growing recognition that the traditional teacher salary schedule does not reward the most effective teachers, most U.S. school districts don't offer teacher incentives for improving student performance and the vast majority of teachers actually oppose such a plan. This Information Capsule reviewed recent studies conducted on…

District Awards for Teacher Excellence (D.A.T.E.) is a state-funded program in Texas that provides grants to districts for the implementation of locally-designed incentive pay plans. All districts in the state are eligible to receive grants, but participation is voluntary. D.A.T.E. incentive pay plans were first implemented in Texas districts…

In July 2007, the Austin Independent School District (AISD) began implementation of AISD REACH, a comprehensive and strategic compensation initiative. The initiative addressed three key areas: student growth, professional growth, and recruitment and retention of teachers and principals at highest needs schools. REACH combines an outcome-based pay…

School systems interested in improving teacher performance, effectiveness, and job satisfaction while reducing turnover rates might do better to seek ways to enhance the intrinsic rewards of teaching rather than implement such extrinsic motivators as merit pay plans and career ladders. A review of the research literature brings several important…

Published four times a year by the Texas Junior College Teachers Association (TJCTA), this newsletter discusses events affecting Texas Junior Colleges and their faculty, chronicles the efforts and activities of the TJCTA, and provides a forum for discourse on topics in community college education. Most of the September 1993 issue is devoted to an…

A recent report published by the National Center on Performance Incentives (NCPI) presents findings from the first-year evaluation of the Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program, one of several statewide educator incentive programs in Texas. Findings are based on the responses of full-time instructional personnel at over 1,000 TEEG schools…