Women in the Academy are raising issues of pay parity, equal representation on committees, increased leadership positions, stories of resilience, and mentorship espousing changes at all levels including teaching, research, and administration. These strategies demand interrogation, and larger questions are being asked about the place of women…

Teach For America (TFA) is an organization that aims to address educational inequity in part through a program of training and placing teachers in U.S. K-12 public schools that have the highest proportions of high-poverty students. In this report, the authors quantify the impacts of Teach For America Indianapolis (TFA Indy) on student and school…

When designing attractive teacher career structures, policymakers have to take a series of complex decisions. These decisions are related not only to the number of steps within the career ladder and their associated responsibilities, but also to how these positions are articulated with the salary scale and to opportunities for professional…

An increasing number of countries are moving to second-generation teacher career models, where differentiation is made between teachers on the basis of their performance rather than on their qualifications or length of service. Career structures that widen the opportunities available to teachers appear to be the most promising for teacher…

On top of many policymakers' wish lists is increased teacher pay. Particular attention also has focused on mechanisms such as merit pay to target rewards to the most effective teachers and keep them in the classroom. Yet resources are constrained. Raising pay for some or all teachers inevitably takes funds away from some other element of…

Teacher compensation is driven largely by teacher longevity. While it's true that wages in many fields generally increase with experience, what differs in teaching is the degree to which pay is linked to seniority. And compared to other professions, teaching has more heavily back-loaded pay -- meaning a disproportionate share of earnings comes…

The content theories of motivation yielded four criteria by which alternative promotion structures in New South Wales (Australia) high schools could be evaluated. Although the existing promotion system failed to satisfy any of these criteria, the three alternatives present certain weaknesses or obstacles preventing their implementation. Includes…

Presents three letters responding to articles about the restructuring of teachers' salaries in the Soviet school system. Includes comments and proposals on seniority, pay for school principals, and payment according to labor rather than leveling. Includes tables that accompanied two of the letters. (DK)

Describes a four-stage model for teacher career advancement in the institution whose present structure does not provide promotion for classroom excellence. (KS)

Ten suggestions for keeping good teachers are provided by the governor of Tennessee. These cover the career ladder concept, awards, honorary degrees, summer work, secretarial help, professional standards, short term teaching, community leadership, recognition of distinction, and recognizing teachers as opinion leaders. (TE)

Presents six letters discussing various aspects of a discussion on restructuring teachers' salaries in the Soviet Union. Considers such questions as who should determine skill level, evaluation criteria for the innovator, cost of living, and differences in school quality. (DK)

To make merit-pay plans work, a district's teacher-evaluation system must be both summative and formative--evaluating both for teacher outcomes and for progressive improvement. Only peer-mediated self-appraisal systems seem able to meet such a challenge. Fairly rewarded merit-pay plans depend on accurate teacher evaluations. However, teacher…

In 1984, the Utah legislature enacted a career ladder bill encouraging all local districts to develop plans for restructuring teachers' compensation and promotion options. An independent, bipartisan taskforce then created a statewide, decentralized model that increases educators' power, minimizes merit and staff differentiation, and fosters…

Policymakers have called for reinventing the principal's role because the long list of duties assigned to principals discourages potential applicants from applying for position vacancies. The focus of this study was to examine teachers' attraction to the principalship. Its purpose was to generate practical information that will inform efforts of…

The author outlines the qualities of excellent teachers and points out that excellence itself is rare in many occupations. He also describes the difficulties teacher's face including the low status they hold in our society. He presents nine steps to follow to achieve excellence in education. (MD)