Knowledge and Skill Based Pay in Wisconsin

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Knowledge and Skill Based Pay in Wisconsin

• Greendale School District
• 2002 National Conference on Teacher Compensation
  and Evaluation
• Chicago, IL
• November 21, 2002

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Why a Pay for Learning Plan?

• Strong communities, with people banded and
  pulling together are our last line of defense
  against the breakdown of families and society.
  When people see that the schools are serving
  their purposes, they tend to see them as their
  schools.
• --Dr. Stewart in Is There a Public for Public
  Schools?

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Why Pay for Learning?

• We need ways to recognize teacher leaders.
• We need to acknowledge early adopters and hard
  workers with real .
• We need to support district change efforts and
  behave our talk Higher Student Achievement.
• What is valued is attended to. - T Sergiovani

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The Foundation of Pay for Learning

• Highly Skilled Faculty and Leadership.
• A community gets the kind of schools it wants.
• Relationships that are Real. Based on trust and
  mutual risk taking.
• Do taxpayers really want to invest in the
  schools?
• Do schools really reflect what the community
  wants them to be?

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Working in Partnership to Ratchet Learning

• Greendale School District Greendale Education
  Association working in partnership to recognize
  learning and performance for faculty.
• A pilot partnership known as Pay for Learning to
  support learning iniatives and receive credit for
  salary advancement.

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Knowledge and Skill Based Pay

• Knowledge based compensation systems provide a
  way to link pay to knowledge and skills desired
  of staff.

• - Reward teachers from fixed pool of funds.
• - Supplement traditional salary schedule.
• - Recognize strategies programs to boost
  achievement
• Push District reforms and recognize commitment.
• Reenergize staff at top of salary schedule.
• - Recognize and develop leadership in schools.

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Working Together for Organizational Learning

• Experimental in nature to determine alternative
  methods to promote learning, leadership, and
  professional growth.
• A recommendation will be made by both parties to
  the negotiation committee to revise, continue, or
  terminate the pilot project.

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Bargaining Greendale Style!

• Nontraditional and relationship oriented.
• Limited caucuses, clear agenda, and time limits
  while looking for shared ground.
• Regular meet and confer sessions to map out
  issues, beliefs, commonalities, and differences.
• We are all in this together Yesterday, today and
  tomorrow.
• Share meals, common interests and child focused.
• Willing to try new things and a belief in the
  future together!

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Example of Collaboration

• Board Exec Team Involvement is important
  because each member brings a diverse background
  to the position. Each has a different sphere of
  influence in the community and are opinion
  leaders. It is important that they are visible
  and interact with each other and their
  organizations in relevant ways.

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What does it really take to build Board,
Administrative and Faculty support?

• For
• Higher educational performance from students
• More satisfied citizens and taxpayers
• Greater community support
• A Learning Community that talks practice

• You must attain
• Commitment of school board Exec. Board.
• Leadership of administrators Association
  Leaders.
• Razor focus on learning, achievement, and
  results. Test scores are rising!

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Developing Pay for Learning

• Use existing resources to incorporate Pay for
  Learning in your District.
• Identify key employees or volunteers within your
  organization. Develop their interests and
  implement the strategies.
• Recruit from within your district. Look for
  individuals with leadership ability or risk
  takers.
• Help all staff members to become learners and
  recognize baby steps.

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Growing Your Own

• Grow your people! Every school district has
  someone who wants to improve their skills and
  apply those skills to improve the school
  district.
• Use a collaboration model to develop leadership
  in everyone.
• Encourage membership in organizations, on
  committees, and conference attendance.

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Growing Your Own

• Train your District leaders. Collaboration,
  Listening and New ways of thinking.
• Relationships are the ability to accomplish a
  task.
• Be an ambassador for your organization and try to
  find a way to say Yes!
• Accurate internal communication and anticipation
  of barriers is key. Look for the third way!

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Getting Started in Pay for Learning

• Identify the best practices of collaboration.
• Compare those methods to the negotiation efforts
  in your school district.
• Develop a gap analysis to identify areas where
  your district and employees can improve your
  bargaining efforts.
• Begin small and create escape hatches!

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Drafting Your Pay for Learning Plan

• Determine a plan of action of what to do next.
• Determine an effective method of measurement and
  evaluation of the things we already do to connect
  with key stakeholders.
• Determine a base line measurement of key
  stakeholders attitudes and beliefs about the
  school district.
• Steal good processes and reinvent to local needs.

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Ways to Accumulate Credit

• District Leadership - staff development,
  technology, vertical teams, action research.
• District Learning - Academies, curriculum and
  teaching initiatives

• Professional Collaboration - Planning, leading or
  facilitating workshops, classes, etc.
• New Teacher Mentoring
• Administrative Work aligned with District Efforts.

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Learning Steering Committee

• Team of 2 administrators and 2 Curriculum
  Facilitators (Teacher Leaders).
• Meet monthly under direction of Superintendent.
• Reviews, approves, and deny participation.
• Decision based on majority vote, not subject to
  grievance.
• Appeal Process based on process in contract to
  settle disputes within GSD.

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Lessons Learned from Research

• Start with the need for continuous, focused
  learning - Matched to District Initiatives.
• Adapt external standards or existing model. Use
  CPRE - We did and it works!
• Understand it is hard to get all of the details
  right the first time.
• Teachers must participate in the design process.

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Lessons Learned From Research

• Be prepared for initial stress reaction from
  teachers, administrators and board members.
• Prepare Principals for the nature of the lack of
  direct control of the program.
• Communication with Staff is essential -
  Administrators, Teachers - helping them to get
  started with improving their skills and
  knowledge.
• Use transition strategies to reduce uncertainty.
• Align HR Evaluation System to skill based
  framework.

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Lessons Learned From Practice

• Establish Steering Committee and fill with
  leaders and creative thinkers.
• Over communicate with staff.
• Understand mistakes will be made and fix them as
  the pilot process goes along.
• Implement with a letter of understanding and a
  sunset clause rather than binding contract
  language.

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Lessons Learned From Practice

• Pay for Learning should target specific District
  Projects such as writing efforts, student
  assessment work, technology, etc.
• Participants in the first year of implementation
  are high fliers in District.
• Cap funding of project to provide check points to
  reevaluate or revise as experience dictates.
• Prepare for disgruntled staff and administrators
  that do not support or wish to participate and
  prefer the standard salary schedule.

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Lessons Learned From Practice

• Create paperwork and forms to document work to
  date.
• Understand that this pilot program will be part
  of the next bargaining process.
• Pay for Learning is not a substitute for adequate
  base pay and does not represent cost saving. -
  It is redeployment of resources in support of
  student learning.
• This is a work in progress and subject to
  revision!

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Lessons Learned from Practice

• The real amount of success and acceptance may not
  be evident till year 2 or 3. Reluctant
  colleagues are just now asking about how to
  become involved.
• Working in a team outside bargaining enhances
  communication and creativity. It makes for cover
  to grow ideas.
• Avoid pre-approved projects, regardless of how
  strongly the team believes in the district
  initiative.

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Role of Association Bargaining

• Changes in compensation likely to be subject of
  collective bargaining
• CPRE Policy Brief, November 2001
• Traditional bargaining replaced by win-win or
  collaborative bargaining
• Reshape policies and actions to accommodate and
  satisfy those concerns - usually through a work
  team.

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Costs of Knowledge and Skill Program

• Difficult to determine. Capped _at_ 30,000.
• Likely to increase over time.
• No administrative costs - other than time.
• Possible Professional Development Cost increase -
  Training!

• Requires time, patience and effort from Pay for
  Learning Team.
• Recognize mistakes will be made.
• Use Pilot Process One year Review - Upgrade or
  Discard.

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Compensation

• 15 hours _at_ 18.80 282.00
• 15 hrs 300 or 1 GSD credit.
• 30 hrs 600 or 2 GSD credits
• 150 hrs 3000 or 10 GSD credits.
• Any credit shall be paid in subsequent contracts
  regardless if program continues.

• GSD GEA agreed to limit participation should
  project exceed 30,000.
• Payment to be made upon completion of project.
• Funding was limited yet enough to generate
  interest.

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Staff Survey A Work in Progress

• Responses to be based on a continuum strongly
  agree to strongly disagree.
• Faculty Engagement
• Fiscal Accountability
• Administrative Issues
• Sources of Information
• We know that we need to make a better effort to
  continually connect with our faculty - especially
  our reluctant colleagues.

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Pay for Learning Told Us...

• Thank you school board GEA Leadership for
  having the guts to do this kind of Learning
  Support.
• Greendale can afford to support organizational
  learning.
• Compensation efforts can develop at the local
  level based on research and best practices.

27 participating in program
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Questions for Pay for Learning to Boost Student
Learning

• Challenges
• Need to understand that it is not scientific.
• Cannot prevent mistakes - Be creative, and fix
  them.
• Cannot control the reluctant colleagues who doubt
  value of project and are angry at salary schedule
  being frozen.
• Customizing learning to reenergize staff rather
  than just high fliers.
• Researching the next projects - the work doesnt
  end!
• An even number of members of the Steering
  Committee forces consensus - a good thing

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Questions to Consider

• Can Pay for Learning increase public financial
  support for public schools?
• Can improved relationships with the school board
  improve community, association and school board
  relationships?
• What changes in the process are needed to make
  Pay for Learning a useful program?
• Does Pay for Learning accommodate individuals who
  struggle with new efforts or have been burned in
  the past?

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Find out more about the Pay for Learning Project

• Visit Greendale and talk to the teachers
  participating. www.greendale.k12.wi.us
• Read CRPRE and implement it. Its in your
  handout! We did and it works. Talk to Dr.
  Odden!
• Start collaborating and stop negotiating.
• Find a way to work with the union professional.
  They have the skills and the interest.
• Reward your high fliers and take a risk.
• Remember, we are about students and learning.

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Is Pay for Learning Worth the Effort?

• Board Members, Administrators, Association
  Leaders need to do a better job of educating the
  public and faculty about compensation methods.
  Leadership is reflective of the communitys
  ideals.
• Using Pay for Learning is another way of helping
  us communicate we are serious about learning and
  alternative compensation.
• We are focused on real change and want to support
  all staff ready to step up on district efforts.

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Come on out for the Rising Bruce
Springsteen2002 If you are performing new work
you can find your profession again or for the
first time. - Bill Hughes