Rethinking How We Reward Teachers

Raising teacher pay remains a hot topic — a recent EdWeek article reiterated that teacher shortages persist across the nation, with educators still earning less than similarly degreed professionals.

Declining enrollment and loss of federal funds, among other factors, are causing district leaders to rethink how teachers are rewarded and consider strategic actions to improve teacher retention.

Strategic ideas to increase teacher pay shared in the article include:

• Strategically set teacher salary schedules to retain teachers most likely to leave. This can be accomplished by rebuilding the teacher schedule annually, granting a general pay increase, and adding adjustments where they are most needed.
• Create or expand high-paying teacher-leader roles. The goal is to allow highly effective teachers to positively impact more students without leaving the classroom.
• Pay teachers in high needs or shortage area roles more.

Additional options address ways to afford teachers more flexibility and collaboration, which supports improved instruction and boosts student outcomes.

• Consider more flexible roles for teachers, which may include part-time work, remote or hybrid work when possible, and more flexible schedules for planning time.
• Focus on retention of consistently excellent educators.

Texas districts have made efforts to implement some of these changes, such as:

• Adopting Opportunity Culture structures to provide opportunities for highly effective teachers to take on multi-classroom leader roles. Read more in HRX articles Building Teacher Career Pathways in Texas Schools, Part 1 and Part 2.
• Participating in the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) to reward effective teachers. Read more about TIA in HRX articles Teacher Incentive Allotment Myth-busting, Teacher Incentive Allotment Designated Teachers, and Teacher Incentive Allotment: Cohort D Highlights.
• Improving teacher pay structures. Details can be found in the HR Services Resource Library topic Updating Teacher Hiring Schedules (member login required).

For more information, check out the full EdWeek article Teacher Contracts Need to Change. And It's Not Just About Money.