Merit pay for teachers is a current issue that many school districts are discussing. North Carolina tried this program, but the results were not as hoped.

Value of teacher incentives questioned
'Everyone is a little disappointed that it hasn't had a greater impact,' says schools' Mike Ward.
By TODD SILBERMAN, News Observer Staff Writer

Nearly 1,400 North Carolina teachers each were paid as much as $1,800 extra last year to work in schools hampered by poverty or lagging student achievement.
The additional pay was an enticement for math, science and special-education teachers to join or stay in those hard-pressed schools. State education and political leaders are now questioning whether the money helped do either and, more broadly, whether incentives alone can remedy teacher shortages.

"I wouldn't be surprised that it was found not to be effective," said Carolyn McKinney, president of the N.C. Association of Educators, the state's largest teacher organization. "It takes more than money."

The House of Representatives has cut the $3 million expense from the state budget for next year, and its prospects in the Senate are uncertain.

State Superintendent Mike Ward says the funding should continue, but he and the State Board of Education are also proposing a different incentive package that they hope will do more to attract and retain teachers in schools that struggle to find qualified candidates.

"Everyone is a little disappointed that it hasn't had a greater impact," Ward said.

Surveys of principals and teachers in the 120 schools that were eligible last year for the extra pay showed that many did not know about the extra-pay provision or learned of it only after teachers were hired.

That suggests to Ward and others that it was poorly publicized.

The extra pay has been provided during the past three years to math, science and special-education teachers in middle and high schools that meet one of two requirements: More than 80 percent of the students qualify for subsidized lunches, or fewer than half the students pass certain state year-end tests.

About half the teachers who received the additional pay last year taught in several of the state's largest and most affluent districts, which pay some of the state's highest local salary supplements. One-quarter of all the teachers worked in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools, where the average local supplement is $5,100, exceeded only by those in the Wake and Chapel Hill-Carrboro districts.

Recruiting still tough

Howard Lee, chairman of the State Board of Education, helped champion the incentives when he was a member of the Senate.

He said the funding has reached more schools than intended -- often without other steps needed to attract and retain good teachers in hard-to-staff schools.

"This incentive still has merit," Lee said, "but it wasn't necessarily intended for that number of schools."

Some schools viewed as among the state's neediest have not been eligible for the extra pay. Only two teachers got it last year in rural Hoke County, which is at the center of a high-profile court case involving poor systems that struggle to attract and keep qualified teachers. The two Hoke teachers work in the district's alternative school, the only Hoke school eligible for the pay boost.

"We continue to have serious problems recruiting math and science teachers," said Allen Strickland, Hoke schools superintendent. Geometry classes at Hoke High School last year were all taught by visiting teachers from other countries, he said, because the school could not find other qualified teachers.

In Halifax County, another rural district in the same legal battle as Hoke, the incentives have been put to good use, said Elease Frederick, Halifax's assistant superintendent for support services.

Last year, 52 Halifax teachers received the extra pay. Five of six middle and high schools in the county qualified for the program, all because more than 80 percent of the students received free or reduced-price lunch.

"When we go to job fairs, it is a point that we bring out," Frederick said. "It is a selling piece for us."

Just one tool

Githens Middle School in Durham was one of seven schools in the Triangle last year that were eligible for the extra pay.

And although Principal Fara Zimmerman said the school did not promote the extra pay as a recruitment strategy last year, its first year of eligibility, she said she thinks it is helping to retain teachers.

"My hope is the state will offer the bonus money to teachers in other [subjects] as well," Zimmerman said. "If we are acknowledging that schools in this category are more challenging, it would seem fair to me that we acknowledge that across the board."

Still, she said, the extra pay is just one tool schools like hers can use to attract and keep teachers.

A survey by the NCAE found that money trailed other concerns that teachers listed when asked about working in low-performing, high-poverty schools, McKinney said. Mentioned first were smaller class sizes, strong administrative support, adequate planning time and extra support positions. Signing bonuses ranked fifth.

Barnett Berry, executive director of the Southeast Center for Teaching Quality, a Chapel Hill policy group, said staffing strategies must rely on more than pay alone. "Money isn't insignificant," he said, "but it's not the key."

Schools should try a comprehensive approach, Barnett said, that includes stronger administrative leadership and support, smaller class sizes, cultivation of a critical mass of accomplished teachers -- and better salaries.