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Alternative Teacher Pay Awards Best Teachers
Posted on January 25, 2013
Four Tennessee school districts have joined a small but growing group of districts nationwide that are experimenting with alternative ways to pay teachers, a new report released by the Comptroller's Offices of Research and Education Accountability highlights.
Alternative salary plans base teacher pay increases on positive performance ratings rather than on years of service and graduate degrees earned, which are the basis for traditional salary plan increases. Alternative salary plans allow effective teachers to earn higher salaries more quickly than they would under traditional plans.
The four Tennessee districts, Johnson County, Lexington City, Putnam County, and Trousdale County that implemented their alternative salary plans in the 2011-2012 school year are scheduled to be joined by three more districts next fall, Haywood, Polk County schools, and locally Lincoln County Schools.
Alternative salary plans allow districts to recognize more effective teachers based on performance measures such as classroom evaluations and increases in students test scores.
Interest in alternative salary plans has been spurred by federal grants, like the Teacher Incentive Fund and Race to the Top, and by private funds. Districts adopting these pay plans see them as a better way to target resources to recruit and retain the most effective teachers.
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