Northern New Mexico Performance-Based Compensation Program

(submitted by Gary Gee)

The NNM PBCP is a program to implement and evaluate a teacher and principal compensation system that uses measures of student achievement as the primary indicator of effective performance.

Four rural school districts in northern New Mexico (Espanola, Springer, Cimarron, and Des Moines districts) comprised the membership of the program. The districts vary in size of students served and size in square miles. All four of the districts face the pressures of low student achievement scores, climbing dropout rates, and the ability to recruit high quality teachers. The four districts have a high majority of Hispanic students, with a smaller Native American population.

New Mexico has raised teacher salaries by mandating minimum salaries for Levels I, II, III as established in the New Mexico 2003 Public School Reforms Act, and the state has been reviewing the current practices of evaluating and compensating principals.
The program offers incentives to teachers, principals, and education assistants for (1) school wide achievement; (2) individual classroom achievement gains; and (3) student achievement gains among (NCLB) high-need student groups. Incentives are also available to teachers and principals who demonstrate the use of additional skills and knowledge used in classrooms and schools. The incentives for teachers and principals range from $2,434-$3,651 per individual, and $1,217-$1,825 per individual for educational assistants. Wexford, an external evaluator, will assess the program.

Local resources are used for the program. Los Alamos National Labs provided $1.2 million to the Espanola schools, and funds from the U.S. Department of Education went to the other three schools. During the second year of the program, the Springer, Cimarron, and Des Moines districts did not participate due to financial difficulties, and the Taos Municipal School District joined the program.