Pay-for-performance plan approved

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA -- With an 8 to 1 vote, the Prince William County School Board officially gave the go-ahead for a pay-for-performance plan during Wednesday’s meeting.

Last fall, the board tasked the school division to look into the possibility of applying for the federally created Teacher Incentive Fund grant. Retaining good teachers at under-performing schools in poorer neighborhoods was one of the primary objectives during the process and overall, most of the board members expressed their satisfaction with the plan on Wednesday.

“We have a plan that can be a model for the commonwealth and the rest of the country,” said board chairman Milton C. Johns--at-large.

Prince William has until July to apply for a share of the $437 million in grant funding. According to interim associate superintendent for Student Learning and Accountability Kris Pedersen, that money will likely be administered to the school division by September.

While some board members expressed concern about various aspects of the plan, only Denita S. Ramirez-Woodbridge voted against it. Ramirez believes that the Professional Performance Process program that was piloted in several schools this year and that will be instituted division-wide by 2011-12 is a sufficient enough indicator of performance at this point.

If awarded, the federal grant money would go to teachers and administrators at eligible schools that score well on a county-created 100-point scoring system. That system is made up of student performance, student behavior, instructional leadership, climate and instructional delivery performance.

Under these five categories are several subcategories. For example, student performance has seven subcategories which add up to 25 points on the 100-point scale.

There are 31 eligible schools in the county. Eligibility is determined by the percentage of economically disadvantaged student population at those particular schools.
The money would likely be handed out in a tiered system in which principals, Standards of Learning teachers, special education teachers and English for speakers of other languages teachers would receive the largest share. Depending on how much money the division receives, the awards would likely range from $2,000 to $10,000 per teacher or administrator, said Pedersen.

Teachers’ assistants are currently not part of the plan and would not receive bonuses.
After five years, the grant funding will run out, leaving localities with the decision to continue the program with their own revenue sources.

Many, including Prince William Education Association, were initially concerned that the plan would only reward those teachers whose students perform well on SOLs. However, these concerns were alleviated, in part, by the fact that student performance is worth just 25 points on the new scoring system.
Still, PWEA president Bonnie Klakowicz does not believe that the pay-for-performance plan is the way to go. She cited everything from the sustainability of the program to factors like home environment as reasons not to implement the plan.

Klakowicz specifically pointed out a given school’s climate, which is made up largely of parent satisfaction, and is worth 20 percent on the newly created grading scale.

“[This plan] is hard to do without community support and parent support,” Klakowicz said. “Those are things [as a teacher] that you can’t control.”

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-530-3904.