New Mexico Public Education Department: Pay for Performance Pilot

The purpose of the New Mexico Pay for Performance Pilot (PPP) is to establish incentive pay pilot programs to reward New Mexico’s best teachers and principals throughout the state. Pay for performance systems have shown to have an impact on reducing turnover amongst high-performing teachers, maintaining performance amongst those teachers and elevating student achievement. By using local expertise and negotiating with local partners, PPP applicants will create innovative systems to reward teachers and principals for their excellence. Goals of the New Mexico Incentive Pay Pilot are:

• Improve student achievement in participating schools
• Improve the performance of teachers and principals through incentive pay policies implemented by districts and charters
• Increase the retention of high performing teachers and principals in schools
• Enable districts and charters the ability to pilot an incentive pay program for teachers and principals
• Provide research on the effects of pilot incentive pay programs for teachers and principals

Applications must show that a program:

• Allows principals the ability to obtain an award for their individual performance as well as NMTEACH group A, B, and C teachers the ability obtain a reward for their individual performance
• Uses the district’s NMTEACH system to identify teachers and principals for awards, with a heavy emphasis on the student achievement category
• Prioritizes teacher and principal awards in low-performing schools as judged by a D or F school grade and/or by areas with teaching shortages such as special education, bilingual education, secondary math, and science
• Provides at least 2/3 of performance pay bonuses to individual teachers and principals; other awards can be given to other groups (such as grade level or school level) as determined by the district
• Allows teachers to qualify for individual awards of at least $1,500; there is no cap on the award amount
• Refrains from making awards for mandatory work such as awards to principals for conducting observations

Bonus points will be awarded to districts that contribute funding from their own budgets to the incentive pay pilots for teachers and principals.

Amount: A total of $9,000,000 is available. Districts and schools should propose the actual amount necessary to implement the proposed incentive pay pilot.

Eligibility: All New Mexico school districts and charter schools interested in piloting programs to reward effective teachers and principals are eligible.

Link: http://ped.state.nm.us/ped/rfps.html

Note: The June 15 deadline is for schools that will be new to the program. Existing programs must apply to continue by June 5.

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