This fifty-page paper by Cynthia Prince, issues director at the American Association of School Administrators, contends that "offering financial incentives to teachers willing to take on more challenging assignments is essential if we are to staff every school with highly qualified teachers....Changing the way that teachers are paid is critical if we are to attract and hold teachers in the schools that serve students with the greatest needs....In short, incentives matter." She reviews a number of incentive-payment programs underway in various states and communities and draws nine lessons from them as to how such programs should be structured to maximize their chances of success. At the end of the paper is a useful bibliography (including websites) of literature-and specific programs-that bear on this issue. It's good to see the staid A.A.S.A. climbing on something so "radical" as incentive pay for teachers-perhaps that means it's no longer a radical idea-and this is a lucid discussion of how to do it. Especially tantalizing is her suggestion that incentive pay is more or less compelled by the No Child Left Behind requirement that every child have a "highly qualified" teacher, suggesting that NCLB is already having unintended (and in this case positive) effects. You can find the paper (in PDF format) on the web at http://www.aasa.org/issues_and_insights/issues_dept/higher_pay.pdf or send for a copy from American Association of School Administrators, 1801 North Moore Street, Arlington, VA 22209. The phone is (703) 875-0767 and the author's email address is [email protected].
