As school districts throughout the U.S. focus on student achievement, the spotlight turns to how we compensate and evaluate teachers.

Districts throughout the U.S. are moving away from traditional standardized compensation packages, favoring plans that adapt to the needs of students and reward teachers for performance rather than just seniority and educational attainment.

• Critical Issue: Rethinking the Use of Educational Resources to Support Higher Student Achievement is an excellent resource from the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.

• The Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Los Angeles has linked teachers' pay to their performance.

• A Plan for Recruiting and Retaining Quality Teachers in Iowa, () from the Iowa Business Forum on Education.

• Cincinnati’s Teacher Compensation and Evaluation System, from the University of Wisconsin Web site.

• Relying simply on the power of compensation doesn't always increase accountability for student achievement. The Upjohn Institute for Employment Research provides a good analysis of Teacher Performance Incentives, Collective Bargaining Agreements and Student Outcomes. (142k )

• The Consortium for Policy Research in Education unites five of the nation's top research institutions to improve student learning through research on education reform, policy, and finance. The members of CPRE are the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

• The Fund for Educational Excellence, in partnership with the Baltimore City Public School System, announced a major gain in state test scores among its 25 "Achievement First" elementary schools. The fund launched Achievement First in 1998 in 10 Baltimore elementary schools.

• Boston and New York have negotiated employee contracts that impact teacher preparation time, student contact time, professional development. Check out the Boston Plan for Excellence and New Visions in New York.

• The Learning First Alliance has published a paper that represents a consensus view on how to teach reading. This alliance is a partnership of 12 national educational associations with the goal to improve student learning in public schools. See Every Child Reading: An Action Plan. Also look for the companion paper for teachers on this site, Every Child Reading: A Professional Development Guide.

• OSBA's Superintendent Performance Incentive Program outlines a model designed to tie your superintendent's pay to performance.

NWREL resources

• OSBA also recommends purchasing the following booklets from the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development: The Schooling Practices That Matter Most and Research You Can Use To Improve Results by NWREL Research Associate Kathleen Cotton.