Questions and answers on North Carolina's Senate Bill 2, the School Improvement and Accountability Act, are presented in this booklet. General information about governance, assessment, and funding is provided in the first section. The next section explains setting specific student performance targets in the form of performance indicators. The…

The articles in this monograph focus on issues identified during participation in the U.S. Department of Education 1984 Teacher Incentive Structures Program, and the 1986 Project to Design Teacher Incentive Structures. Emphasis was on designing or adapting incentive structures for possible use in the school, community, or university. The following…

Following a brief discussion on the concept of teacher incentives, several types of teacher incentive research are described in relation to the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) of the National Center for Education Statistics. Original national data from SASS relating to teacher incentive pay programs are reported. The three types of studies of…

This research bulletin contains parts of two studies dealing with the persistent problem of developing effective teachers and stimulating effective teaching. The study reported in "Attitudes toward Merit Pay for Instructional Personnel" (John Weigman) was conducted to survey, analyze, and compare the attitudes of Florida public school…

Utah's teacher career ladder program, adopted in January 1984, differs from other states' programs in its decentralized approach. Accordingly, school districts have developed widely varying incentives, allocations of responsibilities, pay scales, and teacher evaluation procedures. Various calls for career ladders culminated in 1983 with a…

Utah's involvement with career ladders grew out of the nationwide educational reform movement. The plan was to improve learning by improving the quality of teachers. This could be done by retaining superior teachers, attracting higher quality recruits, and improving teachers' working conditions. In 1984 the Utah Legislature focused on…

The current movement for educational reform follows earlier realizations that the nation's industry and infrastructures have been neglected. President Reagan has responded inadequately to the crisis in education, and Americans will not accept Reagan administration initiatives that do not continue and expand existing successful programs, such as…

The University of Northern Colorado's faculty advising model is described. Committees on advising and student retention identified the need for advising data and inservice training for advisers, along with coordination of academic advising services and a reward system for faculty advisers. Each undergraduate is assigned to an academic adviser, and…

The 1986 Merit Principles Survey asked federal employees to share their opinions and experiences on a variety of issues. The survey queried a group of 16,651 employees that was representative of the full-time permanent work force in 22 of the largest federal agencies. Results showed that many federal employees held positive views of their jobs and…

Information is provided on various aspects of the faculty evaluation and development system at Mountain Empire Community College (MECC). The compilation includes: (1) a statement of the purposes of the faculty evaluation and development system; (2) evaluation procedures; (3) definitions of key terms; (4) an explanation of the Index of Success…

School systems interested in improving teacher performance, effectiveness, and job satisfaction while reducing turnover rates might do better to seek ways to enhance the intrinsic rewards of teaching rather than implement such extrinsic motivators as merit pay plans and career ladders. A review of the research literature brings several important…

This report presents the rationale, methodology, findings, and conclusions of a state-initiated program to assist disadvantaged persons in finding and maintaining stable jobs. Conducted under the direction of the California State Department of Human Resources Development (HRD), this incentive-based system utilizes job agents who are rewarded…

Describes the management practices adopted by the Los Rios Community College District (California) as a result of the passage of the Jarvis-Gann tax initiative. Alterations included reorganization of upper management structure, full budget disclosures, collective bargaining, merit pay concept for administrative staff, and the creation of a…

Summarizes and critiques a study designed to investigate and identify factors that contribute to the attrition of high school band directors. Stating that Nimmo should have addressed the issues of success and merit pay more fully, Cowden concludes that the dissertation's findings reveal the need for serious discussions and actions toward reducing…

Merit pay for teachers is fine in principle, but teachers must have a role in evaluation. The problems that concern merit teaching exit between teacher and principal. It is a question of checks and balances; administrators will play favorites as will teachers. (MLW)