0.3 Cook, l. (october 2011). will a twenty percent salary bonus  (Page 2/9)

Significance of the principal to low-performing schools

Other than the teacher in each classroom and the parents in the home, many education experts feel the principal in each building is the most significant factor in achieving improvement in student learning and positive changes in weak teachers (Gutmore, Strobert,&Gutmore, 2009; Harris, 2006). Leithwood, Harris, and Strauss (2010) say that “The evidence shows that talented leadership is one of the strongest explanations for the success of schools performing beyond expectations in high-poverty settings. High-poverty schools can achieve high academic performance, but this is unlikely without effective leadership” (p. 38). Evidence from turnaround efforts in low-performing schools, to this point, describes how most change efforts—as many as 70%—are unsuccessful, and how turnarounds will not occur without the right leader (Kowal, Hassel,&Hassel, 2009). Researchers from the Wallace Foundation stated it this way, “…there are virtually no documented instances of troubled schools being turned around without intervention by a powerful leader” (Mitgang, 2008, p. 1). “Pick the right school leader and great teachers will come and stay. Pick the wrong one and, over time, good teachers leave, mediocre ones stay, and the school gradually (or not so gradually) declines” (Mitgang, 2008, p. 3).

Bonuses in k-12 education

Bonuses, merit pay, pay-for-performance, and incentive pay for teachers are all salary-related subjects being discussed in what seems like daily television news stories, newspaper analyses, and radio interviews. Although those of us in principal preparation programs could logically conclude that bonus plans for principals will soon follow, to date there seems to be very little research reported that principal bonuses are a frequent occurrence, and even less research reporting positive and negative consequences from principal bonuses. However, it also seems logical that with the numerous experiments in progress currently related to teacher bonuses and

performance pay, including the requirement for merit pay plans to be included in applications for federal grant dollars—past, present, and future—experiments with bonuses for principals will become much more common place in the near future (Perlmutt, 2010; Springer&Gardner, 2010).

Teacher bonuses related to recruitment

What experiments involving teacher bonuses seem to have a significantly positive effect on student achievement and school turnaround in general? What can we learn from these experiments? Are there any bonus programs that have shown to positively influence recruitment, particularly related to low-performing schools? Although it involved only teachers, McCardle (2010) described a significant dissertation study related to retention completed in 2008, in conjunction with the Rand Corporation. High quality teachers in California were offered a $20,000 bonus to change positions and begin teaching in at-risk schools or with difficult student populations. The offer worked. The bonus increased the likelihood that these teachers would enter a low-performing school by 28 percentage points. To date in this Rand study, the conclusion reached is that the career choices of teachers can be influenced with financial incentives. A study in North Carolina offered a bonus of just $1,800 to math, science, and special education teachers working in high poverty or academically failing middle schools and high schools. The bonus proved to be sufficient to improve recruitment and reduce the turnover rates of the targeted teachers by 12 percent (Guardino, 2006). It seems reasonable to think that this kind of incentive could have similar effects on aspiring principals.