Pub. 1 2011-2012 Issue 2

23 T Project Evaluation The University of Utah was hired to con- duct a full evaluation of the individual school plans and total project performance. A couple of highlights from the report included: • Parent Satisfaction ran from 81-96%on all questions concerning staff at WPA • The final report put schools on a grading scale- WPA was rated at 3.93 (of what?) • 70% thought the distribution of funds was fair • 40% thought the reward was sufficient • 90% of our teachers agreed or strongly agreed they knew how to earn the bonus • Teacher Performance at WPA ranged from 93-98% success compared to the average of the four schools ranging from 84-94% My summary of the Performance-Pay Pilot concluded that we really could make no conclusions after only one year of imple- mentation. My recommendation was to conduct a minimum pilot of four years with a three year implementation period. This project involved four elementary schools in Utah and until the secondary schools have time to develop individual measures for every department and have the opportunity to be involved in a pilot such as this, I predict there will not be a successful state-wide performance-pay program in Utah. I believe performance pay must be lucrative enough to make it worth the teacher’s time if the plan is in- stituted to improve teaching and learning. Teacher self-evaluation, based on teacher standards, should be part of a promising evaluation program. I also believe there is a place in education for some form of performance pay. I do not believe at this time Utah provides enough summa- tive data on students to use test scores as the only measure for performance pay. A combination of measures gives every teacher an opportunity to demonstrate their strengths as an educator. If states begin to use performance pay to rid the system of poor teachers the point values used would need to be equalized in selected measures. I believe the state needs to carefully evaluate how they attach student performance to evaluation. Utah is in the infant years of creating research-based evaluation tools and we are just beginning to learn how adequate growth can relate directly to teacher performance. And most important I believe the improvement of staff trust and collaboration must be built through programs such as successful mentoring programs before teachers will risk sup- porting systems of evaluations that may not be fair to all who participate. I believe performance pay must be lucrative enough to make it worth the teacher’s time. Since 1895. Member SIPC and NYSE. ©2011 Piper Jaffray & Co. CM-11-1119 Since 2007, our experienced public finance professionals have completed 14 Utah charter school financings for the acquisition, construction and/or renovation of charter school facilities. piperjaffray.com /charterschoolfinance Piper Jaffray is a leader in Utah charter school finance. To begin your journey, contact Piper Jaffray Public Finance: Bruce E. Sorensen Managing Director 612 303-1776 bruce.e.sorensen@pjc.com Nicholas P. Hagen Vice President 612 303-6661 nicholas.p.hagen@pjc.com