About Knowledge-Based and Skill-Based Pay

Before exploring knowledge- and skill-based pay or performance pay as an alternative teacher
compensation strategy, it must be clearly understood that this strategy is not "merit pay" under a new
name. Individual performance-based pay systems, or merit pay, traditionally have evaluated teachers
against one another for a fixed pool of funds. The aim has been to identify and reward the "best" teachers
with additional pay, although the determination of "best" often was subjective and based on non-existent
or vague criteria.

In contrast, skill-based pay rewards teachers for attaining and being able to use knowledge and skills
valued by the school, district or state, such as the ability to teach all students the mathematics promoted
by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics or the ability to diagnose individual student's learning
needs and to provide instruction targeted at those needs. Skill attainment is judged against a
predetermined, clear-cut standard. A skill-based pay system does not create competition among teachers
because all have the opportunity to develop the skills. It also signals the type of skills the school wants its
faculty to acquire and use. Skill-based pay systems, thus, focus individual skill development on the
knowledge and skills necessary for the organization to accomplish its goals.

A knowledge- and skill-based pay system can more directly relate a teacher's compensation to acquisition
and demonstration of specific and skills than the current single salary schedule. Another benefit of a
knowledge- and skill-based system is that it can reward the development of different types of knowledge
and skills, including those directly related to instruction as well as those that are less direct. For example,
the first and probably the most critical category, would be depth in the areas of content, curriculum and
instructional expertise. A second set of skills would be "breadth" skills that are vital to important
supporting functions such as curriculum development, professional development, counseling, and parent
outreach. A third category could be considered "management" or "leadership" skills, which would be
particularly for schools engaged in site-based management.

These three categories of knowledge and skills could be identified for pay purposes in separate skill
blocks or integrated into a set of standards that encompass the full range of knowledge and skills and
include various performance levels. A knowledge- and skill-based pay salary component could be added
to the current salary schedule (the Douglas County case is an example), could replace either the education
or experience component of the current salary schedule or could replace both components (link in the
Cincinnati K&S case and the Vaughn K&S case).

One way to replace a traditional salary structure would be tie salary increases to professional licensure
and certification such as that being developed by the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support
Consortium, the Educational Testing Service's PRAXIS, and the National Board for Professional Teaching
Standards . Teachers could start their teaching career with a provisional license (a temporary teaching
permit) at a beginning salary level, and earn significant bumps in pay when they receive a professional
teaching license, and if they become certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
A local or national skills-assessment system driven by the teaching profession could identify and assess
additional milestones between professional licensure and Board certification. One emerging tool of this
sort is the set of teaching standards identified by Charlotte Danielson, in Enhancing Professional Practice:
A Framework for Teaching (ASCD, 1996). Locally determined salary increases could be linked to these
accomplishments.

The Teacher Compensation Project is conducting case studies of different types of knowledge- and skill-
based teacher pay systems. It also plans to research what affect on student achievement, measured via
changes in teacher's instruction, can be attributed to the compensation system.