Aligning Teacher Compensation with Systemic School Reform: Skill-Based Pay and Group-Based Performance Rewards

Abstract

Standards-based education reform requires that teachers develop a new array of professional knowledge and skills to teach a thinking-oriented curriculum, engage in the organization and management of schools, and produce higher levels of student achievement. Such a change is systemic and requires that all aspects of the school organization be restructured. This article describes a potential teacher compensation structure that is consistent with these types of systemic and normative changes and that is an example of the kinds of compensation practices they require for successful implementation. Our purpose is to spur systemic thinking about the role of compensation by offering a concrete proposal that includes skill- and competency-based pay as well as group performance awards.