Board tables vote for incentives program
An experimental program offering incentives to teachers willing to work at low-performing schools got a cool reception from school board members Wednesday.
The federally funded program would pay high-quality teachers an additional $20,000 over two years to teach at low-performing schools.
The program is being conducted by Mathematica, a policy research firm in Washington. Researchers launched a pilot program in Washington last year and want to expand to 10 to 12 school districts across the country.
The research group wants to see if teachers with a proven track record of high student performance can do the same at lower-performing schools. The Guilford County program would involve six to eight teachers and about twice as many schools. Each school where teachers received incentives would be matched with a school without incentives, as a control group.
Guilford County Schools operates a similar program already. The Mission Possible program offers incentives to teachers who are deemed high quality to teach at low-performing schools. Those same criteria would be used to invite teachers into the Mathematica program.
Mission Possible schools will not be considered for the program.
Several school board members expressed concerns: Would the incentives program draw good teachers away from schools? And more should be done to keep quality principals at the schools.
"I don't know that we should be trying experiments at low-performing schools," Vice Chairman Amos Quick said.
Quick also questioned Mathematica's policy of offering only $10,000 over two years for high-quality teachers already working in the low-performing schools.
Board members noted that teachers might decide to leave the school after the incentives program is over.
A vote to take part in the Mathematica program was tabled until the Dec. 2 meeting despite administrative staff's recommendation to enroll.
Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com
