Public Impact asked a simple question: "Will our nation's boldest efforts to recruit more top teachers and remove the least effective teachers put an excellent teacher in every classroom?" They ran the numbers and discovered the disappointing answer: No. But that's not the end of the story. With a change in schools' strategies, they realized, 87…

In today's school reform discussions, the teaching profession is often mistakenly viewed as a singular activity. Evaluating teachers for their performance in the classroom assumes that the focus should be on each individual teacher. Merit pay and performance pay both assume that student achievement is the result of only the individual teacher. But…

All employers, including school districts, enter into a "Value Proposition" with their employees--the complete set of offerings and experiences provided by the employer, compared to other similar opportunities. A successful Value Proposition reflects the needs of both employer and employee, not only attracting and retaining employees with the…

Our nation is squandering one of its most important resources--our best teachers--and children are paying the price. Current policy initiatives overlook the most obvious, immediate source of improved teaching effectiveness: The great teachers we already have. The top 25 percent of U.S. teachers--more than 800,000 of them--already achieve results…

This volume reports study findings regarding teacher recruitment and retention patterns in the District of Columbia Public Schools, characteristics of the D.C. teaching force, incentive plans already operating in the District, and comparative financial incentives for attracting and retaining teachers in the system. It describes certification and…

The articles in this monograph focus on issues identified during participation in the U.S. Department of Education 1984 Teacher Incentive Structures Program, and the 1986 Project to Design Teacher Incentive Structures. Emphasis was on designing or adapting incentive structures for possible use in the school, community, or university. The following…

The papers in this collection are based on the document "Perspectives on Performance-Based Incentive Plans" and offer brief overviews of the following critical issues in education: (1) performance-based incentive plans; (2) needed organizational changes; (3) successful and unsuccessful teacher incentive plans; (4) compensation strategies…

This collection of articles gathers reprinted materials on teacher attraction and retention for small and rural school districts. The material is organized in two sections: (1) Attracting and Retaining Quality Teachers and (2) Challenging and Enriching Current Staff. Reprints from a number of publications present strategies for addressing the…

Focusing on the classroom teacher as the key component in the educational process, this yearbook reviews recent school reform upheavals and their effects on teacher compensation, availability and quality of teachers, teacher retirement systems and related issues. After introductory observations on teachers' economic subsidies by Kern Alexander,…

This report identifies present and future problems confronting Tennessee's teachers and offers proposals for responding effectively to these problems. A brief overview of trends in the teaching profession provides a preface to reports on: (1) findings of the teacher compensation subcommittee; (2) findings of the teacher training subcommittee; (3)…

Current facts concerning the teaching profession should be analyzed and acted upon. Most college students now studying to enter the teaching profession come from the bottom quarter of those taking the college entrance examinations. Schools and Colleges of Education are held in very low esteem on most campuses; therefore, when budgets are cut, they…

Included in this annotated bibliography of 11 publications on merit pay are reports covering various approaches to merit increases and the successes of a merit pay program in California's Round Valley School District, an Educational Research Service review of current research and practice on merit and incentive pay for teachers, an ERIC…

This report, commissioned by Wisconsin's superintendent of public instruction, focuses on methods of attracting, preparing, and retaining competent and dedicated teachers in Wisconsin schools. Part I consists of recommendations to attract competent individuals to careers in teaching: informing the public about career opportunities in education and…