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Differential Pay: Vermont

Retaining Effective Teachers Policy

Look at National Findings
Goal

The state should support differential pay for effective teaching in shortage and high-needs areas.

Meets a small part of goal
Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2011). Differential Pay: Vermont results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/VT-Differential-Pay-9

Analysis of Vermont's policies

Vermont does not support differential pay in which a teacher can earn additional compensation by teaching certain subjects. The state does, however, support loan forgiveness. Loans may be partially or completely canceled for licensed teachers of mathematics, science or computer science when the subject is deemed to be a critical shortage area. 

Vermont does not support differential pay for those teaching in high-needs schools; however, the state has no regulatory language that would directly block districts from providing differential pay.

Teachers who are National Board Certified are eligible to receive a $1,000 annual salary stipend for three years. However, this type of differential pay is not tied to high-needs schools or subject-area shortages.

Citation

Recommendations for Vermont

Expand differential pay initiatives for teachers in subject shortage areas.
Although the state's loan forgiveness program is a desirable recruitment and retention tool for teachers early in their careers, Vermont should expand its program to include those already part of the teaching pool. A salary differential is an attractive incentive for every teacher, not just those with education debt. 

Support differential pay for teachers in high-needs schools.
Vermont should consider tying its National Board supplements to teaching in a high-needs school. This differential pay could be an incentive to attract some of the state's most effective teachers to its low-performing schools.

State response to our analysis

Vermont recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.

    • Best practice
    • Meets goal
    • Nearly Meets goal
    • Meets goal in part
    • Meets a small part of goal
    • Does not meet goal

  • Vermont

    Vermont map
Performance Pay
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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
Expanding the Pool of Teachers
Identifying Effective Teachers
Retaining Effective Teachers
Exiting Ineffective Teachers
Research rationale

Two recent studies emphasize the need for differential pay. In "Teacher Quality and Teacher Mobility", L. Feng and T. Sass find that high performing teachers tend to transfer to schools with a large proportion of other high performing teachers and students, while low performing teachers cluster in bottom quartile schools (CALDER: Urban Institute 2011).  Another study from T. Sass et al found that the least effective teachers in high-poverty schools were considerably less effective than the least effective teachers in low-poverty schools.

Charles Clotfelter, et al., "Would Higher Salaries Keep Teachers in High-Poverty Schools? Evidence from a Policy Intervention in North Carolina," Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke University, May 16, 2006 at:
http://papers.nber.org/papers/w12285.

Julie Kowal, et al., "Financial Incentives for Hard to Staff Positions," Center for American Progress, November 2008.

A study by researchers at Rand found that higher pay lowered attrition, and the effect was stronger in high-needs school districts. Every $1,000 increase was estimated to decrease attrition by more than 6 percent. See S.N. Kirby, et al., "Supply and Demand of Minority Teachers in Texas: Problems and Prospects," Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 1999; 21(1): 47-66 at: http://epa.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/21/1/47

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