Our Education Practice

ThreePoint Consulting works with charter school networks, independent schools, public school districts and state education agencies to address complex compensation and performance measurement issues for K-12 teachers and school leaders.

Education organizations have the unique pressure of a “dual bottom line” that demands both maximizing student performance and optimizing limited financial resources. We believe that the best way to maximize student learning is to maximize teacher quality – and that means hiring good teachers and rewarding and retaining top performers. A well-developed compensation program is an essential tool to make this happen. But we also understand the hurdles you face – limited budgets, legacy compensation systems and change-resistant cultures.

SAMPLE CHALLENGES FROM EDUCATION CLIENTS:

“We want to design a compensation system that incorporates teacher performance, but we don’t know where to begin."

“We need to attract and retain high quality teachers, principals and administrators.”

“We want to evaluate our teachers’ performance in a fair and effective manner.”

“We have limited resources to reward our people and want to make sure we’re spending our reward dollars wisely.”

OUR EXPERTISE

At ThreePoint Consulting, we build our engagements on a solid foundation of experience and proven practice, but take them to a new level with our client-specific focus, customized analysis and creative problem-solving. Our Education clients benefit from the following areas of expertise:

  • Salary Structures – A salary structure is the foundation for any new compensation system for educators. Once a school has decided to opt out of the traditional tenure- and degree-based salary scale, we can help create an alternative structure which is more performance-based (e.g., linked to skills and knowledge, student results and/or teacher roles) and is viewed as fair and understandable by school staff. A complete salary structure consists of:

• Setting base salaries and salary progression guidelines
• Establishing salaries for new employees
• Determining how annual salary increases will be calculated

  • Career Ladders – The implementation of a new salary structure often involves the creation of career ladders for teachers. We can help you build an effective career ladder based on teachers taking on additional roles/responsibilities within the school (e.g., mentoring, training, evaluation), enhanced credentials (e.g., National Board Certification), or achieving sustained levels of exceptional performance with regards to teaching practices and/or results.
  • Teacher Performance Measurement– Every performance-based compensation system requires an effective performance measurement and evaluation process. We can help you define the key desired behaviors and outcomes, design a process for setting and tracking performance goals, develop a basis for evaluating teacher practices and results in a transparent and credible way, and translate this assessment into differentiated compensation decisions.
  • Annual Performance Bonus – An annual bonus is one way to deliver performance-related compensation. We can work with you to determine how performance should be measured, how goals should be set, at what levels performance should be measured (e.g., teacher, grade, school, and organization), and how payouts should be linked to performance.
  • Special Bonuses – “Special” bonuses can be a highly effective way to reinforce certain specific behaviors. Some examples are employee referral bonuses, “spot” recognition bonuses and retention bonuses. We can work with you to clarify behaviors to be reinforced, determine reasonable payout opportunities and structure bonus mechanics (e.g., payout timing).

WHAT WE BELIEVE ABOUT EDUCATION

Teachers matter. The best way to maximize student learning is to maximize teacher quality.

Pay for performance. Rewarding teachers who contribute more to the positive performance of the school and its students is fairer than a non-differentiated system.  Linking salary increases and bonuses to specific behaviors and outcomes encourages better performance.

Transparency and fairness are critical. To be successful, a new compensation system must be clearly understood and considered fair by all parties. Ideally, teachers, principals and other stakeholders should participate in the design of any new compensation system.

Principals play a critical role. Principals must have the tools, capabilities and will to fairly evaluate teacher performance. However, total responsibility for evaluation should not reside solely with the Principal. Other administrators and teacher leaders should also play a role.

Compensation is just one piece of the puzzle. Educators are not motivated solely by financial rewards. Non-financial incentives and rewards such as a positive school culture, effective school leadership, meaningful performance feedback, opportunities for collaboration and professional development and career progression are also important.

THE CASE FOR PERFORMANCE-BASED COMPENSATION

We believe that rewarding teachers using the traditional experience and degree salary scales may not be the best use of education resources. The experience of researchers, school leaders, educators and students shows that some teachers are significantly more effective than others. In addition, academic research questions the value of academic degrees and years of teaching experience (beyond the first few years) when it comes to improving student learning.

We believe in rewarding the best teachers by linking salary increases and bonuses to relevant knowledge and skills, student learning outcomes, performance evaluations and other desired behaviors.

There are no easy solutions, but investing the time and effort to find what works for your organization is well worth it. We have found that performance-based compensation systems can be effective if:

  • Teachers believe that performance evaluations and pay decisions are fair
  • The system encourages a school culture that is collaborative and collegial
  • All parties believe that the results and behaviors rewarded will create a better education for students

 You CAN get educator compensation right – and we can help.

To learn more, please review the ThreePoint Education Practice Case Studies.