Cash incentives for teachers are considered

By Emily Richmond

Tuesday, March 12, 2002 | 10:53 a.m.

A plan to provide educators cash incentives based on performance could be a win-win proposal for the fast-growing school district that struggles yearly to fill its teaching positions, Clark County School Board President Sheila Moulton says.

"I hear the community say 'I want to hold teachers accountable,' and I hear the teachers say 'I need more pay,' " Moulton said. "An incentives program may be a way for both of those things to happen."

School officials are exploring a teacher incentive plan for the Clark County School District, following a controversial education trend that split teacher unions and administrators over paying teachers for students' performance.

Moulton said incentives could improve the quality of instruction as well as help recruit and retain teachers, which has always been a struggle for the district.

More than 1,700 additional teachers need to be hired by the start of the next school year in August to fill vacant jobs and positions created by the district's expansion, school officials say. They see a similar situation in coming years.

Clark County School District, the nation's sixth-largest with 245,000 students and 14,000 teachers, has a teacher turnover rate of about 6 percent each year, officials say.

"If we're going to keep up, we're going to need ways of bringing in new talent," Moulton said. "Paying for performance may be the right way of doing that."

Moulton called in researchers from the Education Commission of the States, a Denver-based coalition, to Las Vegas last week for a one-day workshop with Clark County educators.

The nonpartisan commission, chaired this year by Gov. Kenny Guinn, has been collecting data on school districts that have switched from traditional salary structures to so-called "pay for performance" models. Teachers earn extra cash for various milestones, such as higher test scores or taking on additional job responsibilities.

But teacher incentive programs have been controversial because teachers argue that it's difficult to directly link a teacher's ability to student success.

John Jasonek, executive director of the Clark County Education Association, said he doubted any merit pay system could be devised that would truly be fair.

The challenges presented by the county's student population, which includes an ever-growing number of children for whom English is not their first language, makes teacher success rates especially difficult to measure, Jasonek said.

"We already have some performance, knowledge and skills-based criteria for which we pay our teachers more," Jasonek said. "If you're talking about the principals deciding which teachers perform better than others, then I have to say, 'No way.' "

The National Education Association, of which the Clark County organization is an affiliate, voted in 2000 to oppose incentives programs as part of contracts for its more than 2 million members.

Rather than rewarding a few individuals with bonuses, the school district should focus on raising salaries of all teachers, Jasonek said.

The average teacher's salary for Clark County is $40,000, and "you have to work 11 years to get there," Jasonek said. Many teachers never make it to their fifth year, when the salary hits $30,000, he said.

It's too early for anyone, including teachers, to reject an incentives program for Clark County's schools, Moulton said.

"We're at the very first step, and I hope our teachers will be open to discussing some new ideas," Moulton said. Putting an incentives program in place is a lengthy process, which is why the district should start discussing the possibility now, Moulton said.

She said she asked the district's staff to meet with teachers, employees and community leaders to gauge reaction to the program. If enough of the "stakeholders" show interest, the issue could come before the School Board for discussion, Moulton said.

Incentives programs are being tried at school districts across the country with mixed results. Supporters of the programs say financial incentives help attract -- and keep -- better teachers by rewarding achievement over seniority. Opponents claim pay-for-performance programs force teachers to compete against one another, undermining the collaborative nature of the profession.

In California, the Legislature approved $100 million to pay educators at the state's struggling schools for gains on test scores, handing out individual checks ranging from $5,000 to $25,000. A pilot program in Colorado lets teachers choose whether they want their bonuses based on test scores or on the completion of a series of objectives throughout the school year.

While students in several pilot programs have shown gains on test scores, it's too early to determine whether pay-for-performance systems improve education, said Twanna Hill, one of the education commission's researchers studying the incentives programs.

"We know a lot more about what people are trying to do than what actually works," said Hill, who is studying pilot programs in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa and Ohio.

There's no question that shifts in the country's economy in the last year have translated into setbacks for some incentives programs, Hill said. The Iowa Legislature approved a mandatory incentives program for public schools statewide, but funding has since dried up, Hill said.

Finding money to pay for an incentives program is obviously a key component for Nevada as well, Clark County School Superintendent Carlos Garcia said.

The district's $1.1 billion annual budget still needs to be trimmed by $10 million for next year, leaving little money for new programs, Garcia said. Corporate partnerships could be one solution, Garcia said.

The state Legislature meets next year, but given budget projections it's doubtful lawmakers could find the money to launch a program.

Guinn's spokesman said this morning that the governor has been following the issue intently and would consider supporting the proposal if teachers are on board.

Garcia said the program's success would need complete support from all sides, including administrators, teachers and the community.

"In the places where teacher incentives have worked, it's worked only because everyone had the same objective," Garcia said. "That is what will make it or break it."