Published: April 11, 2007

It's Time We Talked about Performance Pay

A few years ago, an excellent young teacher asked a question I could not answer. Nodding down the hall at a distant figure, she wondered: "Why do I get the same pay as Ms. Early?”

Her real name is not “Early,” but I always think of her that way, because she effectively took “early retirement” years ago. Unfortunately, she’s still a member of our faculty at Brighton, a high-poverty K-8 school on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama, where I’ve served as the school-improvement coach since completing my term as National Teacher of...