Motivation for Teachers

After talking a lot in class about teacher retention and high quality teachers and looking at Title II for my change project, I decided to look into the different incentives that are out there for teachers because I do believe if implemented correctly and to the right teachers, retain rates could be higher for BCPSS. Although incentives vary from district to district, here are some of the incentives out there for teachers:

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools in Winston-Salem, NC
· -1,200 Supplement Salary Advance
· Model New Teacher Support Program
· Waiver for Connection of Utilities
· Waiver/Reduction for Security Deposits for Apartment
· Waiver for Cable Connections (Time Warner)
· No Money Down Home Buyers Program (Bank of America)
· First Time Home Buyer Program (City of Winston-Salem)
· Customized Banking Services (BB&T)
· Free Investment & Retirement Planning
· Free Health, Dental & Life Insurance
· All teachers assigned a Laptop computer
· Teacher Staff Development Incentive Pay
· Equity Plus Bonus
· Tuition Reimbursement (up to $100 twice a school year)
Taken directly from http://mts.admin.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/employ/recruit.html
Chapel Hill- Carrboro City Schools in Chapel Hill, NC:
· $1500 signing bonus for certified teachers in 2007-08
· Tuition reimbursement (up to $500 per person per year)
· Housing Assistance (no deposit of first month’s rent for 1st year teachers)
· Support Programs (Mentoring, Novice and New Teacher Orientation, New Teacher Support Groups)
Information taken from http://www.chccs.k12.nc.us/CHCCSPage.asp?DP=Emp&ID=7
Chicago Schools
· Rookie teachers in East Aurora District 131 get a $150 bonus for higher district-wide test scores
· In Forreston individual teachers could either win a raise plus a $1,000 bonus or be denied both based on their principal’s evaluation
Information taken from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20000629/ai_n13861607
Baltimore City Public Schools
· Teacher Next Door Program (HUD housing for teachers at cost)
· 3 incentive packages totaling $12,00 for new teachers in 2007-08 (a teacher can qualify for 1, 2, or all 3), but they must sign a 2 year contract and attend monthly new teacher training meetings
· $1,000 signing bonus from Maryland State Department of Education (if teachers come directly from college or graduate school and have a GPA of 3.5 or better; and they must remain employed for 3 consecutive years or reimburse the State)
· BCPSS tuition assistance (will pay up to 75% for up to 12 credits of coursework per year leading to a Master’s degree and up to 50% for up to 12 credits of coursework per year beyond the Master’s degree)
· New teachers get lap tops and $200 gift cards
Information from http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/Careers/FAQs/index.asp
While I am all for teacher incentives, because I do believe people may work harder for student achievement or stay longer for tuition assistance and bonuses, I do not agree with the fact that most school systems offer the majority of these incentives for new teachers. Like we have discussed in class, BCPSS seems to have no problem bringing teachers in each year, but they have a major issues keeping them past their 2 or 3 year contract. I believe that having incentives for veteran teachers and for those who stay beyond 2 years, who prove to be more beneficial than shelling out thousands of dollars each year to give new teachers lap tops and signing bonuses. The problem with providing incentives for teachers already in the system is that most of the incentives would be fairly arbitrary. Specifically, bonuses based off of test scores and principal evaluations are not necessarily accurate. The principal could show favoritism or discriminate against those he/she may have personal issues with. While test scores are evident of student achievement, how can one be sure that the English teacher is responsible for the students’ success on the HSA, if the students write BCR’s and ECR’s in other classes, as well as are responsible for comprehending and analyzing what they read. Perhaps it was their history or science teacher that actually helped them pass or maybe it was their 9th grade English teacher as opposed to their 10th grade English teacher that they had when they took the test. I feel that school systems do not want to take the time to figure out how to make incentives work for all teachers, especially teachers who stay, so they just give them to new teachers coming in because it is easy; however, it is not working to keep those teachers around. BCPSS, as well as other districts need to have a team strictly devoted to teacher retention. This group of people should take time to interview teachers and administrators about the things they want/need to be convinced to stay in the system. Once they have this information they can work to figure out ways to incorporate these things into incentive plans and bonuses for teachers and administrators. I truly believe that if something like this was done and worked at, we could get more people to stay.