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Single Salary Pay Scedule
Since 1950, virtually all school districts in the United States used a compensation system known as the “single salary schedule” to pay their public school teachers. The single salary schedule bases teacher pay on two factors: postgraduate degrees or courses and years of teaching experience. In addition, it includes a series of automatic annual pay increases or “steps” by which a teacher advances from the bottom to the top of a given pay range. -
Mandate to annually evaluate teachers performance
In 1997, the state legislature mandated that districts annually evaluate the performance of teachers on classroom management, subject matter knowledge, instructional strategies, student assessment, parent involvement, and professional competency. As student achivement became a growing concern, the legislature began to require districts to base annual teacher performance evaluations on improvements in student learning and that they base a portion of teacher pay on an annual evaluation. -
No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)
In 2001, President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) became the first major federal foray into teacher-quality standards (2011). The act included a Highly Qualified Teacher Provision that every teacher of a core academic subject defined in the law to be “highly qualified.” -
A-Plus Education Plan (A-Plus)
In 2005, the legislature passed Governor Jeb Bush’s A-Plus Education Plan (A-Plus), which required state assessments in grades three through 10 and new school accountability measures. The law also required that districts develop plans for identifying teachers and school leaders who demonstrate “outstanding performance” and award them a bonus in pay. -
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Professional Compensation for Teachers (ProComp)
State of Denvor created a performance pay system or Professional Compensation for Teachers (ProComp) as a result of a collective bargaining agreement between the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and its Public Schools. The new pay system went into effect in 2006 after a four-year pilot program in 12 of the state's 142 schools and was funded by a $25 million voter-approved tax increase. -
Special Teacher Rewards Program (STAR)
In 2006, an iteration of performance pay was instituted called the Special Teachers Are Rewarded (STAR) program, which specified that at least 50% of a teacher’s performance evaluation must be based on student learning gains and the rest consist of the principal’s evaluation of the teacher. -
Merit Award Program (MAP)
In 2007, the Merit Award Program (MAP) was introduced. MAP replaced much of the earlier statutory language and made district participation voluntary. However, tt did not eliminate the requirement that districts base a portion of teacher pay on performance. -
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Race to the Top (RTT) & Teacher Incentive Fund
The 2009 the federal stimulus act provided fiscal stabilization funds to states in return for assurances that they would develop such longitudinal student data systems by the fall of 2011. The stimulus act also included two competitive grants that boosted teacher pay for performance plans: Race to the Top (RTTT) and the Teacher Incentive Fund. -
IMPACT Teacher Evaluation System
During the 2009-10 school year, Washington D.C. established a new teacher evaluation system that incorporated a measure of student test performance. In 2011, the state followed up with a performance pay system called IMPACT which was linked to the evaluations. In addition to its evaluation and performance pay provisions, the contract also increases D.C. teachers' base pay by 20% over five years which was know as IMPACTplus.