by Odden & Wallace

By Allan Odden, PhD, (University of Wisconsin – Madison), and Marc Wallace, Teacher Effectiveness Through Compensation (TEC). This new publication is a handy yet authoritative reference for state and local policy makers. Two of the nation’s leading experts in teacher compensation base their presentation on the following principles: 1. The key accountability for schools is to improve student performance. 2. Teachers in the classroom (including those in hard-to-staff fields such as math and special education) and their instructional practice are the single most important factors that will lead to improved student performance. 3. Teacher compensation is the single biggest part of the education budget (often more than 60%). 4. Therefore, linking pay to teacher performance–instructional practice that produces student learning gains–is the best way to expend money in a way that ultimately improves student performance. This book will show how the connections among those principles are playing.