Putnam Schools Could Move Away From Student Achievement Based Teacher Pay

Putnam County Schools is exploring a new way to pay teachers by moving away from level of effectiveness measures.

Director of Schools Corby King introduced the idea in a recent work session. King said teachers currently receive raises based on student achievement and growth.

“There are so many factors that are involved, and I really want to pay teachers for the job,” King said. “We know what they do is important and it is hard work, so let’s pay them as professionals for the job they do not based on test scores.”

King said over the years, he has found that the performance model has not impacted student data as attended. At the same time, King said only 40 percent of Putnam teachers actually instruct state tested classes.

“At the end of the day, it hasn’t really made an impact on students achievement, so let’s just pay teachers for the job they do and not tie their pay to a score,” King said. “That’s my thought behind expressing that in the work session. It will be work that we do with the teachers over the course of the next year looking at the new funding.”

King said the initial idea is to change the pay scale based on years of service. King said the first step would be looking at the overall impact to the school budget.

“Looking at what would be an appropriate step and level increase on annual basis,” King said. “This is something that we had on the pay scale several years ago for many years just what you would see with any normal pay scale. We would want the increase in the pay scale to be similar what their LOE (level of effectiveness) would be if we continue to keep basing it on scores. We want to make sure our teachers are continuing to see salary improvement.”

King said the achievement-based pay plan was introduced in the late 2000’s as a part of the federal government’s Race to the Top education program.