program was recognized as one of Harvard’s Achievement Gap Initiatives. School-wide focus and collaboration among teachers were keys to this success. Likewise, in a rural Mississippi middle school, the principal was successful moving the school from not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals in 2009 to “high performance” in 2010 – 1 year. She led this giant step forward by recognizing that teachers were neither teaching nor testing at the Mississippi Curriculum Framework’s required cognitive thinking or DOK levels. Students were learning what was being taught; teachers were not teaching on required DOK levels. With this school-wide focus, specific professional development, and organized collaboration teams, the faculty quickly and efficiently strengthened this teaching weakness. An aggressive, mature PBC system variation designates the school-wide goal as the required trigger for any reward tied to quantitative measures. For example, if the high school fails to reach its graduation rate target, no rewards tied to quantitative goals are given, even if a teacher reaches his/her student achievement goal. For example, in a middle school when fewer than 80% of students score proficient or above on the state-wide language arts test, the school-wide goal, teachers lose any reward tied to student achievement. Schoolwide goals in PBC systems serve as important management tools by focusing all teachers on a school’s biggest challenge. As an aside, the practice of using organization-wide performance as a trigger for individual payouts is usual and customary in businesses. If the net earnings, for example, do not fall within a certain range, individual payouts are withheld. This aggressive application of rewards based on quantitative measures is not recommended for new PBC systems.
Quantitative Measures for 1st and 2nd Grade Teachers Because of the significant challenge Mississippi continues to face teaching 1st and 2nd grade students to read and perform basic math and because these grades do not have associated state-wide assessments, this PBC system recommends a short-term qualitative assessment for these teachers. The practice of most Mississippi districts to employ universal screeners in these grades offers such an assessment. While the specific tests used by districts vary, they are all standardized or given in controlled environments, criterionreferenced, etc., thus yielding valid and reliable results. Requiring districts to administer these tests at the beginning of the school year creates a base line for measuring individual student achievement. Continuing the practice of repeat testing during the year, then ensuring that all schools repeat the test again at the 31