Overview

Pay for Performance in America's public schools is an extremely controversial issue. Although the process has made inroads in business and is a means to help determine promotions, pay, and retention it has not been so well received in the Public schholl systems. However, there are some successful examples where teacher pay has been linked to student test scores. In Minnesota for example, some districts have stopped giving automatic raises for seniority and base 60% of all pay increases on employee performance. In Denver, unions and school districts designed an incentive program where teachers receive bonuses for student achievement and for earning national teaching certificates. However, some plans have not worked. For example, Cincinnati teachers voted against a merit pay proposal and Philadelphia teachers gave their bonus checks to charity rather than cashing them. It appears that having teachers involved in planning the incentive system is one key factor to success. The same can be said for all incentive plans - if employees don't buy into them, they will not work.

Questions to Research:

1. How could an organization measure the effectiveness of their pay-for-performance plans?

2. From an employee's perspective, what are the disadvantages of using a pay-for-performance plan?

3. From an employer's perspective, what are the disadvantages of using a pay-for-performance plan?

Research Paper Instructions:    

The research assignment this week is worth 20% of your final grade. The assignment is due Sunday, 11:59 PM EST and should be submitted as an MS Word attachment in either a .doc, .docx, or .rtf format. Your paper should be a minimum of eight (8) full pages of double written content work in 12 point font. In addition, include a properly formatted APA cover page, an abstract, a properly formatted Introduction and Conclusion, and a minimum of 5 references to support your ideas, arguments, and opinions. Your paper should analyze all required readings and those from your research in the field of study. You are expected to conduct outside research aside from the text to support your ideas, arguments, and opinions. Discussions of key concepts, and a critical analysis of the research is required. Remember you are to critically analyze the data you find. Merely copying pasting and citing sources does not constitute scholarly writing. You must present ideas and positions and support or refute those arguments with credible references and sources.