Pub. 1 2011-2012 Issue 2

22 PILOT Performance-Pay By Sandra Shepard, Principal | Wasatch Peak Academy T he legislative directed performance-pay pilot was conducted at Wasatch Peak Academy (WPA) along with four other schools across Utah from August 2009 to Fall 2011. Wasatch Peak had been using performance pay since opening in 2006. The opportunity to collaborate and improve our plan drew us into the project. Year 1: Creating the Plan Our plan focused on measures in three areas: quality instruc- tion, student performance and community satisfaction. Each of these areas was divided into subcategories and assigned a point value. We measured community satisfaction through our online parent surveys of teacher performance twice a year. Quality Instruction was broken down into three areas: A research based literacy evaluation conducted by the principal, a teacher bonus rubric based on The Utah Teacher Standards, and a teacher self evaluation. Student performance was also broken down into personal, grade-level and school-wide goals set by the principal and teaching staff. The school-wide goal was based on student performance in the state CRT Language Arts test. Grade level goals were based on improvement measures used either in math or literacy classes. The personal goal was the most unique mea- surement of our student performance section and was rooted in case studies, developed by teachers, about measurable progress of small intervention groups. In the year prior to this pilot we also received a dissemination grant and developed the Charter Mentor Assistance Program (C-MAP) along with principals and mentor leaders from Canyon Rim, Freedom Academy and Ranches Academy. In the pilot program, we published mentoring professional handbooks for all charter schools and conducted year long training to assist 12 schools in professional development mentoring programs. I believe, the level of cooperation created in my building between staff members who were observing teachers throughout our building, demonstrating mentoring skills and classroom obser- vations for many schools, prepared us to work as a cooperative school team on the performance-pay pilot. Every teacher in year 1 received a $2,000 bonus for participating in the creation of our performance-pay plan. Year 2: Implementing the Plan In year two we implemented the plan with few concerns. Every requirement was fulfilled by staff with the exception of one teacher not finalizing the written case study. Our parents responded well and our staff continued their work with the C-MAP mentoring program. $36,000 was distributed across the performance-pay scale in year two to eighteen teachers. Bonus pay stipends for year two ranged from $900- $3,500. Our plan focused on measures in three areas: quality instruction, student performance and community satisfaction.