Performance-based pay links student achievement to an educator’s compensation. Performance-based compensation systems also take into account classroom evaluations and provide educators with incentives to take on additional roles and responsibilities.

What is MAPSA’s solution?

In the summer of 2010 MAPSA applied for a grant through the U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher Incentive Fund.  In the fall, The Teacher Excellence & Academic Milestones for Students (TEAMS) project was approved as part of a national evaluation project with some modifications to the original proposal. The TEAMS projects will bring reform and innovation to schools through the performance-based pay models.

What are our goals?

Using the TEAMS model, MAPSA will work to achieve many goals to increase overall teacher quality. We will create an environment that is conducive to understanding data and use data within Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to communicate and innovate within a school culture. This will be achieved through implementation and accomplishment of many goals, including;

• Increasing student achievement, with in each classroom and schools as a whole,
• Increasing the number of new-hire teachers in high-need areas retained each year,
• Establishing PLCs in each school,
• Filling leadership and additional responsibility roles in each participating school,
• Adopting a working-plan and budget for school governing boards to ensure long-term sustainability, and
• Ensuring school leaders and other key staff are proficient at using the performance management system for continuous improvement in all aspects of school operations.

Why was your school chosen?

MAPSA chose to work with 20 Detroit-area charter schools for the TEAMS project. This project will demonstrate that in an under-performing environment performance-based models can work to increase student achievement.

These 20 schools will be divided into two cohort groups. One group of 10 schools will receive an automatic 1% of their pay for participation in this project. The other 10 schools will receive up to 15% of their pay based on a formula which includes: assessment and observation results. The 10 schools that can receive up to 15% of their pay, also have an opportunity to earn pay for additional roles and responsibilities.  Mathematica, a policy research organization, identified through random assignment the schools in each cohort.