Tulsa World: Teacher merit pay discussed by TPS leader, legislators

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Teacher merit pay discussed by TPS leader, legislators

Superintendent Keith Ballard

By BARBARA HOBEROCK World Capitol Bureau
Published: 10/20/2009 10:12 PM
Last Modified: 10/20/2009 10:12 PM

OKLAHOMA CITY — Four state laws would have to be tweaked for Tulsa Public Schools to create a teacher performance pay program, TPS Superintendent Keith Ballard told a legislative panel on Tuesday.

Ballard spoke to the Achieving Classroom Excellence Task Force, which has been studying ways to reduce the number of dropouts and increase graduation rates and post-secondary enrollments.

Ballard said legislative leaders have signed off on the changes, but he didn’t disclose specifics.

Tulsa Public Schools created a teacher performance pay plan while competing for funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The district ultimately was passed over for the $55.6 million partnership to improve teacher effectiveness.

But Ballard said he hopes to create a pilot program in the district to reward effective teachers by 2011.

“If the state has money again and wants to say we want a performance-pay plan, they can look to that model,” Ballard said. “We don’t have any particular ownership in it. We care about what happens in the state. It could be a model that could be used.”

The Tulsa plan would cost conservatively $15 million to implement, Ballard said.

The original plan would have raised the starting teacher salary to $36,000 and the top salary to $65,000, he said.

A statewide performance pay plan is unlikely in the near future as state revenues are declining and state agencies are cutting budgets.

“Long term, I truly believe in incentives in any business,” said Sen. John Ford, R-Bartlesville, chairman of the ACE Task Force.

Sen. Gary Stanislawski, R-Tulsa, also supports incentive pay for teachers.

“It is not something we need to jump into next year,” Stanislawski said, adding that additional research will have to be done.

“I think we will find the vast majority are doing a good job and should come into the performance pay corral at varying levels,” Ballard said.

“There will be a group of people who don’t measure up. You must use that data to make good decisions.”

By BARBARA HOBEROCK World Capitol Bureau

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Reader comments for this story have been moved to the most updated version of the story, now under the headline "Teacher performance pay planned," which was published on 10/21/2009. So far, 32 comments have been made.