Merit pay is making a comeback

Tying teacher pay to students' academic progress has proven to be very controversial, but some states are developing ways to reward teachers for "accelerating student achievement" or taking on hard-to-fill jobs, reports Sarah D. Sparks in Education Week.

"The newest and most ambitious of these experiments go beyond gauging performance based primarily on test scores to consider a teacher’s classroom practice, peer collaboration, and willingness to tackle high-need subjects, students, and communities," she writes.

Schools are hiring more teachers and support staff, so payrolls are way up. But teacher pay has not kept up with inflation in the last 10 years, according to federal data.

Utah is giving bonuses to teachers "based on a combination of student achievement growth on test scores, professional evaluations, parent and student surveys, and, in some districts, measures of teacher-team collaboration," Sparks writes.

Arkansas raised teacher starting pay statewide, and then offered bonuses based on high student growth, mentoring other teachers and filling critical staffing shortages.

Early research by Gema Zamarro and her University of Arkansas colleagues has found "the pay restructuring has helped rural districts be more competitive with larger nearby districts in recruiting and retaining new teachers, and has reduced the number of teachers leaving the classroom for other fields," reports Sparks.

Texas’ statewide Teacher Incentive Allotment funds merit pay to "master teachers, considered the top 5 percent based on student growth and class observations" and “exemplary” teachers in the top 20 percent. Teachers who earn National Board certification or perform in the top third also qualify for bonuses.