What It Is

Next to family, a teacher is the most important factor in the education of a child and can mitigate even the worst disadvantages. Efforts to ensure that teachers are paid, rewarded, evaluated and treated professionally are numerous and varied.

Performance pay, or merit-based pay, rewards teachers based on their performance in the classroom and not just on seniority, which is currently the norm. True merit pay is not a system of bonuses, but rather a method of linking educators’ pay directly to student performance. These policies are designed to increase individual accountability by linking compensation and job security directly to operational and academic outcomes.

What We Believe

Next to a parent, a teacher is the most important influence in a child’s life, and, thus, ensuring the quality of every educator that comes in contact with our kids is essential. To that end, we believe in the implementation of strong, data-driven, performance-based accountability systems that ensure teachers are rewarded, retained and advanced based on how they perform in adding value to the students who they teach, measured predominantly by student achievement, along with skills and responsibilities. There must be consequences for teachers who are not successful in educating students, no matter how noble or caring they may be.

Latest Updates

Honor Teachers in Public Schools of Choice

Know an outstanding teacher at a charter school or online school? Nominate them for The American Pioneer of Teaching Award!

Coalition Pushes for Laws to Protect Kids from Abusive Teachers

S.E.S.A.M.E. is working to pass legislation that will increase safety for children in schools by preventing teachers accused of sexual abuse from moving to another school district without his or her new employer being alerted to the allegations of misconduct.

RESPECT for Teaching

Education Secretary Arne Duncan announces $5 billion dollar federal competition aiming to improve teaching by rewarding states that adopt policies favored by the administration.

Banner Year For Teacher Policy Reform

The National Council on Teacher Quality's annual State Teacher Policy Yearbook marks 2011 as a substantial year for teacher policy changes across the states.

Teachers Association Speaks Out

Ohio teachers union protects their pipeline of cash at the expense of students, taxpayers and even teachers. The Association of American Educators speaks out against forced unionism and the Ohio union referendum SB5 being overturned.

“Save Our Schools”? More Like Save Our Status Quo

Last month’s march on Washington D.C. by the group erroneously titled "Save our Schools" is something out of a bad back-to-the-future movie.

Resources

The myths, confusion and misunderstandings over performance pay are widespread. In Making the Grade, we set out to explain what is and what is not, while developing a roadmap for state legislators. Making the Grade: October 2010

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) is a nonprofit in Washington, DC that advocates for reforms in a broad range of teacher policies at the federal, state, and local levels in order to increase the number of effective teachers. http://www.nctq.org/p/

The New Teacher Project and Educators for Excellence are nonprofits from Washington, DC and New York that focus on directly improving teacher quality through training and research: The New Teacher Project http://tntp.org/

Educators for Excellence is an organization of education professionals who seek to provide an independent voice for educators in the debate surrounding education reform – a voice that puts students first.http://www.educators4excellence.org/

American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence is dedicated to recruiting, certifying and supporting excellent teachers essential for achieving student success. http://www.abcte.org

The Association of American Educators (AAE) is the is the largest national nonunion professional teachers association, advancing the profession through teacher advocacy and professional development, as well as promoting excellence in education, so that our members receive the respect, recognition and reward they deserve. http://www.aaeteachers.org/