Northern Humboldt Union High School District Performance-Based Compensation William J. Slotnik Executive Director Community Training and Assistance Center Boston, Massachusetts © 2010 Community Training and Assistance Center

Performance-Based Compensation: A 200 Year Journey  Previous Attempts in US and UK  Faulty premises  Weak implementation © 2010 Community Training and Assistance Center

Six Cornerstones of Effective Performance-Based Compensation  Systemic reform  Collaboration  Organizational sustainability  Financial sustainability  Broad base of support  Benefit to students © 2010 Community Training and Assistance Center

Cornerstone 1: Performance-based compensation is a systemic reform  Serves as a catalyst for reform  Involves significant changes in district systems  Depends on leadership, readiness and capacity © 2010 Community Training and Assistance Center

Cornerstone 2: Compensation reform must be done with teachers, not to teachers  Understand the relationship to the contract  Enable teachers to inform and shape the reform  Build trust and implementation support © 2010 Community Training and Assistance Center

Cornerstone 3: Compensation reform must be organizationally sustainable  Recognize: teacher effectiveness depends on management effectiveness  Align and improve quality of district support to classrooms  Emphasize capacity building: key to mid-course corrections and scaling up © 2010 Community Training and Assistance Center

Cornerstone 4: Performance-based compensation must be financially sustainable  Address three types of costs: ▲ Transitioning ▲ Sustaining ▲ Reallocating  Understand: it costs more  Plan from the start for the long-term © 2010 Community Training and Assistance Center

Cornerstone 5: A broad base of support is required in the district and community  Focus on constituency building  Increase awareness and support through community organizing  Value two-way communication within the district and community © 2010 Community Training and Assistance Center

Cornerstone 6: Performance-based compensation must benefit students Understand the implications for:  Multiple measures of student achievement  Comprehensive study: base decisions on evidence © 2010 Community Training and Assistance Center

A Lesson of Institutional Change  Move past continuing misconceptions  Understand gaps between practice/policy and results  Integrate compensation reform and school improvement © 2010 Community Training and Assistance Center

Key Features of Performance Based Compensation in Denver  A negotiated agreement between the Board of Education and the Teachers Association  A four-year, sixteen-school pilot to test the potential of linking teacher compensation to student achievement  Additional compensation based on meeting two teacher-developed and measured objectives  A commissioned independent study of pilot impact  Development of a new compensation plan for teachers © 2010 Community Training and Assistance Center

Findings: Impact of Objectives & Student Achievement  Excellent objectives are positively associated with higher mean student achievement:  All years of the pilot  All three academic levels  Meeting two objectives makes a positive difference in mean student achievement  Objective setting is a critical initial step in the planning and delivery of instruction © 2010 Community Training and Assistance Center

Quality of Objectives  Improvements over the course of the pilot, particularly in year four  Greater attention to learning content  Importance of staying the course Rubric Level Percent Percent Percent Percent 40.9%8.9%13.2%28.0% 324.1%22.6%34.1%44.2% Total # © 2010 Community Training and Assistance Center

Organizational Alignment and System Quality  Making the system function systematically on behalf of students  Addressing the challenges of improving, reconfiguring and linking systems © 2010 Community Training and Assistance Center

Organizational Challenges  Issues of alignment  The quality and appropriateness of assessments  Integrated student-teacher data capacity  Customizing professional development  Expanding leadership capacity  Addressing gaps in instructional support  Quality and consistency of teacher-principal interactions © 2010 Community Training and Assistance Center

Key Finding on Institutional Change The focus on student achievement and a teacher’s contribution to such achievement can be a major trigger for change — if the initiative also addresses the district factors that shape the schools. Catalyst for Change © 2010 Community Training and Assistance Center