If you missed the national conference on teacher compensation and evaluation sponsored by CPRE (Consortium for Policy Research in Education) in November 2002, you can now access most of its presentations online. Among the highlights: economist Dan Goldhaber on the relationship between teacher labor markets and teacher quality, union leader Brad Jupp on what's new with the performance-pay project in Denver, and a CPRE paper on possible changes in pension programs to increase teacher mobility and retention. Presentations are linked to the conference agenda at www.wcer.wisc.edu/cpre/conference/conference/Nov02/agenda.asp
The CPRE-UW (CPRE at the University of Wisconsin) newsletter [available at http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/cpre/news/newsletter/feb2003.asp] also identifies some new teacher compensation projects: Kentucky is accepting RFP's from districts for 10 pilots for differentiated pay programs; Philadelphia will pilot a performance-based pay system this spring (though it's tied to teacher standards, not student performance); the Colonial School District in Pennsylvania has changed its bonus program for individual teachers into a group/school-based performance award program; several state-funded pilot programs are underway in Minnesota, where the new governor has indicated that performance pay is a high priority; and both Idaho and the Arlington, Virginia school district are looking at possible changes to teacher compensation.