Most teachers don't earn more for skills or taking on tough jobs

We're flooding high-poverty schools with "ever more teachers of questionable quality," writes economist Noah Smith. Instead of lowering class sizes, we should raise pay to "attract highly competent people capable of making a big difference in disadvantaged kids' lives."

Yet policymakers are moving in the opposite direction that Smith "and research evidence!—indicates they should," writes Fordham's Mike Petrilli on Schooled. "A new NCTQ study shows a declining number of states providing (or requiring) incentive pay for hard-to-staff subjects and schools."

Forty-one states "fail to reward their most effective teachers," reports Sarah D. Sparks on Education Week. Instead, "automatic salary increases tied to seniority and credentials that research shows do little to improve student outcomes."

In 32 states, schools don't pay more for needed skills, "even as persistent shortages in special education, math, and science leave students without consistent instructio," Sparks writes.

“Paying more for hard-to-fill positions and rewarding top performers is a no-brainer in most professions," said NCTQ President Heather Peske. But not in teaching.

High-minority, high-poverty schools have trouble retaining teachers, notes Sparks. Urban districts may spend $25,000 to replace a single teacher. "Research shows that targeted pay for teachers in hard-to-staff schools helps bring effective teachers into those classrooms, improves retention, and raises student achievement," she writes.

"Well-designed performance-based pay systems" can keep good teachers on the job, Sparks reports. In Texas, teachers earning top performance ratings are more likely to stay in their districts, producing "average student achievement gains equivalent to roughly a third of a year of additional learning."

In recent survey, "more than 60% of voters agree that teachers should be paid more for excelling and less for underperforming, she writes. "Seniority-based pay was deeply unpopular."

But teachers are very skeptical of administrators' ability to judge teacher effectiveness, and unions typically oppose differential pay.

School districts are spending a lot more per student, but teachers aren't earning more, adjusted for inflation, writes Chad Aldeman. Schools employ "more teachers and a lot more instructional aides, principals, assistant principals, guidance counselors and student support staff." Spending for insurance and retirement benefits is way up too.

After earning a degree in math at a top university, and getting seven weeks of training, Alina Adams' son is teaching middle-school math in the Bronx as an NYC Teaching Fellow, she writes. He's dedicated to the job -- and completely inexperienced, she writes. "The students who need effective teachers the most are the ones least likely to get them."

Inexperienced teaching fellows are sent to low-income, underperforming schools, she writes. They get a financial bonus for being willing to work in the Bronx. "The same incentives currently being used to entice brand-new NYC Teaching Fellows to work at high-needs schools in the Bronx should be employed for traditionally trained public school teachers."