Performance-Pay for Teachers

Principled Reform

Schools and education need to change if they are going to remain relevant in the 21st Century. Frequently, educational bloggers discuss this change in terms of the way we teach, learn and organize our curriculum. However, there are many other issues that surround education that will need to follow suit if we  want to continue to attract the brightest and best to the profession. There needs to be systemic change. One organization that is doing something about it is The Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ) a nonprofit in North Carolina that exists to improves student learning through developing teacher leadership, conducting practical research and engaging various communities.I have served as Teacher Leadership and Technology Advisor for CTQ for the past four years. As a result, I have been part of some incredible policy work that has  changed who I am as a person.

TeacherSolutions

Some of you have heard me talk about TeacherSolutions, a one of a kind project led by CTQ. 
TeacherSolutions is an initiative designed to amplify the voices of expert teachers in national education policy debates. I was privileged to be asked to facilitate a series of virtual Webinars where 18 of the nation's best teachers assessed and debated with researchers well versed in value-added methods. The project has continued with follow-up meetings with policy analysts, community activists, teacher union leaders, and practitioners who have been involved in a variety of performance-pay plans across the nation. The final result is an inaugural report Performance-Pay for Teachers: Designing a System that Students Deserve which was released on Wednesday.

Coverage
There has been some pretty fair play of this report which features 100% teacher leader voice and teacher leader expert researched opinion.  The ASCD SmartBrief daily report, which reaches 158,000 subscribers, carried the story, which was also the lead story at Education Week's homepage for April 11.  The Cleveland Plain Dealer had a front page story about the report (above the fold)... it's linked in the SmartBrief newsletter, but you can also see the ACTUAL front page by downloading this PDF. What a kick to see all the hard work and teacher wisdom on the front page of a major US newspaper!

http://www.cleveland.com/frontpage/pdfs/wednesday.pdf

We're tracking the coverage of the report at this page on the TLN website:

http://www.teacherleaders.org/teachersolutions/press.htm

Betsy Rogers, another TeacherSolutions team member, has written about the
report in this week's Teacher Magazine essay:

http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2007/04/11/23tln_rogers_web.html

And finally, Dewey on The Common School has written a complimentary review of the report.

Check it out and I think whether you agree with their ideas or not, you will agree it is about time teachers had a place at the policy table creating reform written from an insider's perspective that is relevant in the 21st Century. Please take a moment to Read the full report and you will find a multitude of reform strategies for professionalizing the teaching profession.