The state that pioneered the revolutionary "value-added" methodology once again proves it's on the forefront of ed policy reform. New legislation from the Tennessee legislature requires every local school board to install a differential pay plan, paying teachers more who work in hard-to-staff schools or who fill high-shortage subject areas. With funds from an increase in the state's cigarette tax, locals can select from a menu of acceptable options, including signing bonuses, performance bonuses or loan forgiveness programs. The state has made it clear that "supplements should be in the thousands, not hundreds of dollars--incentives significant enough to make a difference to teachers."

Jumping across to Texas, that state education department is reporting that districts aren't all that keen to take advantage of the state's massive compensation reform initiative. Less than half of Texas school districts have chosen so far to participate in the state's new plan with the particularly cute acronym of DATE, or, District Awards for Teacher Excellence. Most of the state's larger districts, however, including Houston and Dallas, are participating. Texas isn't alone; both Minnesota's Q Comp and Florida's STAR/MAP initiatives have all been met by indifference from many districts.

TEA is claiming that it isn't lack of district interest in performance pay, but that some districts already have plans in place or (and this sounds a lot more plausible to us) they can't (or don't want to) put up the 15 percent local match that the state requires.

For a good summary on state initiatives at pay reform, take a look at the Center for American Progress' recently published series on performance pay .