The Exceptional Results of Sensible Teacher Salary Reform
Published April 17, 2024
In 2016, Dallas Independent School District revolutionized teacher pay by introducing a groundbreaking system that rewards effectiveness and incentivizes top educators to teach in underperforming schools. The results were extraordinary and emphasize the transformative power of attracting and retaining high-quality teachers. This innovative approach to teacher compensation offers a promising path forward for school districts nationwide, ensuring that excellent educators receive the recognition they deserve while providing students with the top-tier education they need to succeed.
You can find the research paper, "Attracting and Retaining Highly Effective Educators in Hard-to-Staff Schools" by Eric Hanushek, Andrew Morgan, Minh Nguyen, Ben Ost, and Steven Rivkin here.
Check Out More from Eric Hanushek:
- Watch "Education Lessons from the Pandemic" from Eric Hanushek's discussion at the Hoover Instution's Policy Boot Camp here.
- Watch "How to Reverse Pandemic-Related Learning Losses" with Eric Hanushek here.
- Read "A Global Perspective on US Learning Losses" by Eric Hanushek and Bradley Strauss here.
The opinions expressed in this video are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University. © 2024 by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University.
Most public schools pay teachers based on the combination of seniority and academic credentials without any attention to a teacher's effectiveness. But in 2016, the Dallas Independent School District ditched the traditional pay model and created a new system of compensation that combined measurements of teacher effectiveness with financial incentives to attract the best teachers to schools in need of the most help.
Teachers rated as exemplary were given the opportunity to earn thousands of dollars in bonus pay by teaching in low performing schools, and the plan worked. Students in the lowest performing schools showed immediate and significant improvements in math and reading, elevating them to the district average. Once those schools improved and no longer actively recruited the best teachers, those teachers left and test scores fell, demonstrating the profound impact that incentives for effective teachers have on education.
School districts around the country should consider similar programs to measure their teachers effectiveness and incentivize them to teach in low performing schools. With meaningful incentive-based pay reform, there is real hope that excellent teachers can receive the compensation they deserve and that students can receive the excellent education they are owed.