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RICHLAND ONE LAUNCHES ‘PAY FOR RESULTS’ PLAN Teachers whose students make significant achievement gains during the school year can cash in under a plan being implemented in Richland One. With approval of the Board of School Commissioners on January 9, Richland One became one of only a few school districts across the country to have a performance-based teacher incentive program. Richland One Superintendent Allen Coles says the district’s Pay for Results plan is designed to treat teachers like other professionals, like doctors and lawyers, who reap financial benefits for getting better-than-average results. The plan also helps to establish and promote Richland One as being a results-driven district, he said. “We do not expect all students to end the year at the same achievement level, but we do expect student achievement growth from August to May and, hopefully, significant achievement growth,” Coles said. In Tier One of the Pay for Results plan, all school staff (instructional and non-instructional) can earn bonuses if their schools earn a Palmetto Gold or Palmetto Silver award or if the schools raise their absolute report card rating index by 0.1 or if they obtain a positive improvement index. In Tier Two, individual teachers will be rewarded for getting significant student achievement gains as defined under the established criteria. The first payouts will be made in the fall of the 2007-2008 school year, based on 2006-2007 achievement results. Multiple assessments will be used to determine which teachers and schools will receive the bonuses, including school report cards, TerraNova, Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests (PACT), High School Assessment Program (HSAP), end-of-course exams, Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) performance data. If the plan had been in effect for this year, more than 200 Richland One teachers would have been eligible to receive the individual incentive awards and three schools would have qualified for the school-wide awards. The school board set aside $1 million last year to launch the program. Coles cautioned that Pay for Results should not be viewed as the only tool that will be used to raise student achievement in Richland One, rather that it is “one brick in the road to moving Richland One from being a good school district to being a great school district.” He said Richland One’s plan likely will change over time as the district assesses the inclusiveness of the incentive program, how student achievement growth is measured and the compensation levels.
2007 Pay For Results Methodology
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