Pay for Performance

Performance-based pay programs generally offer financial incentives to individual educators and/or a school’s entire staff, based on specific outcomes or criteria. While these programs have focused primarily on raising students’ academic outcomes, many also help states and districts address other long-standing policy problems, such as the unequal distribution of high quality teachers in high needs schools, teacher retention, and recruitment.

National Board Certification as a Pay-for-Performance Model

National Board Certification is a widely respected model of pay-for-performance and is supported by educators and policymakers -- including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.  National Board Certification is one of the best ways to put in place what effective teaching is as measured by high and rigorous standards and a teacher's impact on student learning and achievement.

The following states use National Board Certification as a pay-for-performance model, offering a broad range of incentives to meet local needs:

Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Many districts, even where the state does not offer incentives for National Board Certification, offer stipends, release time or candidate support for those pursuing or who have achieved National Board Certification.

The Impact of National Board Certification as a Pay-for-Performance Model

National Board Certification has been subject to intense scrutiny and research that shows positive results for improving student learning and achievement.  National Board Certified Teachers stay in the profession longer, support new and struggling teachers and assume school-based leadership roles¹.  In a congressionally-mandated report, the National Research Council also confirmed that students taught by board-certified teachers make higher gains on achievement tests than those taught by teachers who have not applied or did not achieve advanced certification².

Recognizing and rewarding National Board Certified Teachers can be an effective way of ensuring that the most highly accomplished teachers remain in the classroom. 

• In Florida, nearly 90% of National Board Certified Teachers remain in teaching -- far exceeding the average 60% retention rate of all teachers statewide³. 
• In Ohio, 52% of National Board Certified Teachers surveyed said they plan to stay in teaching as long as they can, compared to 38% of non-board certified teachers in the state⁴.
• In Chicago, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan notes, "There's a 90 percent retention rate and it really speaks to the obvious point that these teachers [NBCTs] are passionately committed.  These are not teachers who are using this as a stepping stone to something else."

Other states, districts and schools have had similar, positive results.  As education stakeholders continue to discuss solutions for attracting and retaining effective teachers in order to improve student learning and achievement, using National Board Certification as a pay-for-performance model should be strongly considered.

^{1. Yankelovich, 2001, Sykes, et al., 2006, Freund, Russell, and Kavulic, 2005.}

^{2. National Research Council, 2008; Clotfelter, Ladd, and Vigdor, 2007; Goldhaber and Anthony, 2004; Cavalluzzo, 2004.}

^{3. Florida Department of Education, 2008.}

^{4. Sykes, et al, 2006.}