Performance-Based Pay for Educators

This book provides an in-depth analysis of a performance-based pay initiative and crystalizes the design issues and implementation challenges that confounded efforts to translate this promising policy into practice. This story has much to say to academics and policymakers who are trying to figure out the combinations of incentives and the full range of resources required to establish incentive programs that promote an adequate supply and equitable distribution of capable and committed educators for our public schools. The book uncovers the conditions that appear to be necessary, if not fully sufficient, for performance-based initiatives to have a chance to realize their ambitious aims and the research that is required to guide policy development. In so doing, the authors consider the thorny question of whether performance-based pay systems for educators are worth the investment.

Book Features:

• Examines the use of educator compensation reform as a tool to improve human capital in chronically low-performing schools.
• Analyzes how a theoretically promising incentive program actually plays out in schools.
• Documents policy implementation and its impacts through the experiences and voices of teachers and school administrators.
• Concludes with clear and actionable recommendations for policy and research.

Jennifer King Rice is professor of education policy and associate dean of graduate studies and faculty affairs in the College of Education at the University of Maryland. Betty Malen is a professor of education policy and Distinguished Scholar Teacher at the University of Maryland.

"Jennifer King Rice and Betty Malen collaborate to provide an in-depth analysis of a performance-based pay initiative and crystalizes the design issues and implementation challenges that confounded efforts to translate promising teacher compensation policies into practice. This story has much to say to academics and policymakers who are trying to figure out the combinations of incentives and the full range of resources required to establish incentive programs that promote an adequate supply and equitable distribution of capable and committed educators for our public schools."

—Midwest Book Review

“Education reformers have long known that performance-based pay is devilishly difficult to implement. All too often top-down, piecemeal changes squander scarce resources and undermine trust. Now, Rice and Malen’s first-rate study of one district’s comprehensive pay reform reveals that even well-planned, collaborative efforts easily go awry, casting further doubt on the promise of pay incentives to improve schooling. This book is required reading for all well-intentioned reformers.”
—Susan Moore Johnson, Harvard University

“Rice and Malen provide a compelling account of one district’s experience with a performance-based incentive program for educators. This book is a rare and valuable analysis of a policy uncovering both the technical and political challenges inherent in designing and implementing reform even under the most promising of conditions. Given the enduring interest in and ongoing federal funding available for pay-for-performance policies—and the surprising lack of research evidence undergirding this popularity—it behooves policymakers, reformers, funders, and students to learn from this important case.”
—Julie A. Marsh, University of Southern California