Retaining Effective Teachers Policy
Kentucky supports differential pay by which a teacher can earn additional compensation by teaching certain subjects. Those teaching in "critical shortage" areas are eligible, and the subjects identified as critical teacher shortage areas during the 2011-2012 school year include: biology (secondary), chemistry (secondary), engineering technology, English (middle school and secondary), English as a second language, exceptional children, earth science, information technology, mathematics (middle school and secondary), science (middle school), social studies (secondary), physics and world language. The state does not currently address the amount of stipend or higher annual salary.
Kentucky also encourages each school district to develop differential pay programs to recruit and retain highly skilled teachers to serve in high-needs schools or "hard-to-fill" positions.The state treasury has established a professional compensation fund to provide grants to districts using such programs.
In addition, teachers who are National Board Certified are eligible to receive a $2,000 annual salary supplement. However, this differential pay is not tied to high-needs schools or subject-area shortages.
Consider tying National Board supplements to teaching in high-needs schools.
This differential pay could be an incentive to attract some of the state's most effective teachers to its low-performing schools.
Kentucky recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.