Oregon City School District walks away from $2.54 million grant for performance pay | OregonLive.com

Oregon City School District walks away from $2.54 million grant for performance pay | OregonLive.com:

Oregon City School District walks away from $2.54 million grant for performance pay

Published: Sunday, October 23, 2011, 4:00 PM

By Nicole Dungca, The Oregonian 

The Oregon City School District has decided to reject a $2.54 million federal grant meant to reward top educators, partly because of philosophical concerns over performance-based pay.

When the district won the money last September through a group application with six other districts and the non-profit Chalkboard Project, Oregon City's union and administration at first insisted they could devise a way to tap the federal government's "Teacher Incentive Fund" without offering merit-based pay incentives.

A year later, after failing to agree on a plan for individual bonuses, the 8,100-student district has decided to abandon the program.

Performance-based compensation models in education, especially those using student test scores, are the subject of vigorous debate across the country.

Opponents say studies offer little evidence that performance-based pay improves student