AISD's Strategic Compensation Initiative

The Austin School District appreciates The Education Trust for spotlighting a serious concern of public education today, i.e. ensuring that all children are taught by highly effective teachers. These reports surface a national issue that Austin ISD has been working to address in its schools for several years: that differences exist in the experience levels, and therefore in the expenditures on salaries, of teachers working in schools serving divergent populations of students.

One Ed Trust report examines these expenditure differences between schools serving high versus low concentrations of economically disadvantaged students, and the other examines differences between schools serving high versus low concentrations of minority students. Four elementary schools within AISD - Summitt, Wooten, Winn, and Casis - are featured as specific examples of having staffs of disparate experience - and, therefore, salary - levels.  
 
While it is true that expenditures on salaries vary between schools within AISD, there are many aspects of the reports that either actively, or through omission, detract from what would otherwise be a positive discussion:  
 
• The reports blur any distinction between teacher experience and teacher quality, and imply that evidence of differences on expenditures for teacher salaries, therefore, is evidence of active differences in educational support. The reports do not capture the total expenditures at any of Austin's schools, and, when that is considered relative to the percentage of economically disadvantaged students enrolled at each campus, a very different picture of educational support for students is immediately evident.  
 
• The reports give no acknowledgement to any other factors that can destabilize the work force at a particular school; examples span from external pressures related to accountability system sanctions to the internal working conditions or climate in which the teachers are immersed.  
 
• Most importantly, the reports contain five recommendations for action at the district level, but do not give any indication that AISD has already been taking steps to implement such actions for over a year, with the full support of Trustees, the community, and the professional associations.  
 
The reality in Austin ISD is that per pupil expenditures for AISD's low-income/minority campuses are much greater than per pupil expenditures for other AISD campuses. Campuses receive supplemental local, state, and federal dollars based on the percentage of low income and educationally disadvantaged students on the campus. These funds support supplemental services such as attendance/dropout, counseling, tutoring/mentoring programs and parent support specialists for all students on a campus - all supports necessary to student success - and are not reflected in the reports' limited description of funding.  
 
Using the reports' examples of the campuses cited above - and not acknowledging the supplemental funding provided by AISD - the Ed Trust reports state that Summitt Elementary teachers are "paid an average of $3,819 per year more than teachers at Wooten"; and that "Casis teachers are paid an average of $2,402 per year more than teachers at Winn." However, these schools' true expenditure picture is as follows:  
 

 
2004-2005 AISD Per Pupil Expenditures All Funds

Wooten
$6,510

Summitt
$5,396

Winn
$6,696

Casis
$5,457

 
 
At every grade level - elementary, middle, and high school - this expenditure pattern is repeated. For example, in 2004-2005, Oak Springs Elementary in East Austin spent $10,310 per student, while Hill Elementary in Northwest Austin spent $4,639. At the middle school level, Webb in the I-35 corridor spent $7,978, and Bailey in Southwest Austin, $5,328. Johnston High School, in Southeast Austin spent $8,997, and Bowie in Southwest Austin, $5,294. Clearly, the Austin School District is strongly committed to funding high needs schools, yet these reports fail to acknowledge that financial commitment.  
 
Does this mean that AISD believes everything that can be done to attract highly-qualified teachers to high needs schools has been done? Not at all. In fact the District is poised to launch, in Fall 2007, a pilot project in its Strategic Compensation Initiative, which will more highly compensate educators at high needs campuses. Such an approach to compensation is one of The Education Trust's recommendations.  
 
Austin's Initiative is aimed at a new "4 Rs" - Raising student achievement by Recruiting, Retaining, and Recognizing outstanding classroom teachers and principals. Through this initiative, AISD will explore how new and enhanced forms of compensation and organizational support can:  
 
• Improve student learning at all schools and for all students, and eliminate the achievement gap.  
 
• Recruit well-qualified teachers and principals to all AISD schools.  
 
• Increase retention rates among AISD teachers and principals.  
 
• Strengthen the knowledge and skills of staff.  
 
This type of compensation reform has placed AISD at the forefront of a national movement which is gaining momentum. According to the an article in the New York Times on June 18, 2007, "A consensus is building across the political spectrum that rewarding teachers with bonuses or raises for improving student achievement, working in lower income schools, or teaching subjects that are hard to staff can energize veteran teachers and attract bright rookies to the profession."  
 
The article cited a slow reluctance to accept compensation reform from teacher unions on a national level. Compensation reform can be a politically-charged issue, particularly when staff doesn't feel buy-in to the process or to new measures that are put in place, but Austin ISD's collaborative model has brought together administrators, teachers, parents, and representatives from teachers' professional associations - including Education Austin - and the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. AISD's approach is unique - one that the District believes will come to represent a national model for approaching compensation reform done the right way. The District's commitment is to a systemic approach in which it recognizes that compensation is an integral component of improving student learning. This initiative can only succeed if it is created by Austin educators, for Austin educators - and is one in which the focus is quality teaching.  
 
In fact, Austin's model will be the topic of discussion at a Chamber of Commerce/IBM Education roundtable on Thursday, June 21. The Roundtable notes that "Austin ISD is one of only a handful of school districts out of more than 7,000 nationally that has or will institute a compensation system that rewards school employees who contribute to meeting or exceeding student academic performance goals.  
 
"The District looks forward to seeing these efforts, to compensate the best teachers for their outstanding work, come to full fruition in the next two years. For more information on Austin ISD's Strategic Compensation Initiative, go to www.austinisd.org/compensation/