Trib Talk: Performance-based pay for teachers

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Northwest Middle School had a problem.

Students at the Salt Lake City school consistently scored abysmally in math, science and writing and students were, on average, only reading at a fourth-grade level.

So three years ago, school administrators at this public school made a course correction. They instituted performance pay based on student test scores. Last week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan came to town to applaud the results.

On Monday at 12:15 p.m., assistant principal Rachel Nance, teacher Javier Viana and Salt Lake Tribune reporter Kristen Moulton join Jennifer Napier-Pearce to examine the Northwest model and if bonus pay is financially sustainable in a cash-strapped state with a lot of kids like Utah.

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