Governor McDonnell Launches Teacher Performance-Pay Initiative

According to a news release, Governor Bob McDonnell has invited 57 school divisions to participate in his Virginia Performance-Pay Incentives initiative. The school divisions selected are considered "hard-to-staff," and often have difficulty hiring and keeping experienced, fully-licensed teachers. 

There are 169 eligible schools, including 17 from Arlington County: Abingdon Elementary, Arlington Traditional Elementary, Ashlawn Elementary, Barrett Elementary, Campbell Elementary, Carlin Springs Elementary, Claremont Elementary, Drew Model Elementary, Francis Scott Key Elementary, Gunston Middle, Henry Elementary, Hoffman-Boston Elementary, Long Branch Elementary, Oakridge Elementary, Randolph Elementary, Swanson Middle and Washington-Lee High. 

The Virginia Performance-Pay Incentives initiative provides $3 million in state funding to reward teachers that earn exemplary ratings in these "hard-to-staff" schools during the 2011-2012 school year. The initiative was approved by the 2011 General Assembly. Federal support for performance-pay programs is available through the $59.8 million School Improvement Grant the commonwealth received in April 2010.

“Teachers who make a commitment to students in hard-to-staff urban and rural schools, despite circumstances that often prompt colleagues to seek assignments elsewhere, deserve our admiration, and when they succeed in raising the achievement of students in these schools, their performance should be rewarded,” McDonnell said in the release. 

According to the release, "schools receiving funding through the competitive-grant program must implement a comprehensive teacher-evaluation system aligned with performance standards and model evaluation systems approved by the Board of Education. At least 40 percent of teacher evaluations must be based on student academic growth, including, when available and appropriate, student-growth data provided by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE)."

A teacher can receive no more than $5,000 from the incentive. When applying for funding, schools can choose all teachers in the hard-to-staff schools or limit eligibility for performance pay to specific groups of teachers within schools, such as teachers in reading and mathematics. 

“All told, the funding available for performance pay represents an opportunity to provide meaningful incentives and rewards for exemplary teachers in a significant number of Virginia schools, and, in the long term, the results of these pilot programs will tell us a lot about the potential for performance pay to improve teacher quality and raise student achievement,” McDonnell said in the release.