Higher Pay In Hard-to-staff Schools: The Case For Financial Incentives

H I G H E R PAY IN HARDITOISTAFF SCHOOLS The Case for Financial Incentives Cynthia D. Prince A SCARECROWEDUCATION BOOK Published in partnership with the American Association of School Administrators The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham, Maryland, and Oxford 2003 A SCARECROWEDUCATION BOOK Published in partnership with the American Association of School Administrators Published in the United States of America by Scarecrow Press, Inc. A Member of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.scarecroweducation.com PO Box 317 Oxford OX2 9RU, UK Copyright 0 2003 by Cynthia D. Prince All rights reserved. No part of this publication may ,e reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PublicationData Prince, Cynthia D. Higher pay in hard-to-staff schools : the case for financial incentives / Cynthia D. Prince. p. cm. “Published in partnership with the American Association of School Administrators.” Includes bibliographical references (p. ). ISBN 0-8108-4696-9 (Paperback : alk. paper) 1. Teachers-Salaries, etc.-United States. 2. Teacher turnover-United States. 3. Rewards and punishments in education-United States. 4. Incentive awards-United States. I. Title. LB2842.22 .P75 2003 331.2’813711’00971~21 2002154368 eTM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence for Printed Library Materials, ANSUNISO 239.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America. of Paper To Christopher and Allison This Page Intentionally Left Blank CONTENTS Foreword vii Acknowledgments IX Introduction xi I The Case for Financial Incentives I 2 Types of Financial Incentives 31 3 Conclusions and Recommendations 61 Resources on the Web 71 References 79 About the Author 91 V This Page Intentionally Left Blank O n e of the most important issues facing school system leaders today is attracting quality teachers and principals to schools that serve large concentrations of poor, minority, and low-achieving students. Record teacher shortages, combined with increased expectations that schools will bring all students to h g h levels of performance, have created tough challenges for educators and policymakers alike. We know that student achievement is directly affected by the quality of students’ classroom teachers. It follows that quality teachers and principals should characterize schools serving students with the greatest needs. However, schools that serve large concentrations of poor and minority students experience the greatest difficulty attracting and keeping highly qualified teachers. The No Child Behind Act has created an even greater sense of urgency for school system leaders to address this problem because school districts must ensure that every teacher is highly qualified within the next four years or face federal sanctions. The question is how. Critics of public education believe that using public funds to enable parents to flee low-performing schools will ensure that