Degree Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

1991

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Curriculum and Instruction

First Advisor

Richard P. Manatt

Abstract

To attract the best people to teaching, and to keep good teachers, schools must begin paying for actual performance. Legislation enacted in Iowa in 1987 established the Educational Excellence Program, "... a performance-based pay plan for teachers who demonstrate superior performance in completing assigned duties.";This study seeks to determine what within-district factors are present which support the selection and development of a pay-for-performance plan. The following questions more specifically address the problem: (1) What conditions or attitudes are present in districts which adopt a pay-for-performance plan? (2) Does a relationship exist between the development of a pay-for-performance plan and the quality of teacher performance evaluation? (3) What indicators of teacher morale, as measured by perceptions of organizational climate, are present in districts which adopt a pay-for-performance plan?;The population from which the sample was drawn included all public school districts in the State of Iowa. Districts selected were all districts committing 50 percent or more of their educational enhancement funds to an approved pay-for-performance plan for the 1988-89 school year. The sampling frames contained 19 school districts with pay-for-performance plans and 19 school districts without pay-for-performance plans;To obtain a more in-depth understanding of the total relationship among all discriminating variables, discriminant analysis was used;The findings of the discriminant analysis were consistent with intuitive expectations in place at the beginning of the study. This was particularly true with respect to the relationship between teacher performance evaluation and pay-for-performance. Teacher perception of organizational climate was the dominant variable in the discriminant function and the best predictor of group membership;For the stakeholder group contemplating the feasibility of adopting a pay-for-performance plan, a thorough assessment of the district's readiness for change is suggested. This assessment should include a review of the teacher performance evaluation system and the teachers' perceptions of the organizational climate within which they work.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31274/rtd-180813-9353

Publisher

Digital Repository @ Iowa State University, http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/

Copyright Owner

Veronica Waterman Stalker

Language

en

Proquest ID

AAI9212193

File Format

application/pdf

File Size

113 pages

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