Little Rock School District eyes performance, retention incentive

LITTLE ROCK — School District leaders are exploring the possibility of paying retention and performance incentives to faculty, with greater amounts going to those working in schools with low student achievement on state-required tests.

The incentives would be paid in the first year — the 2023-24 school year — with federal covid-19 relief money to the district.

The need to pay for those incentives over the long term, however, is prompting district leaders to consider resurrecting the long-dormant Little Rock Public Education Foundation as a way to raise money through philanthropic contributions.

Superintendent Jermall Wright recently introduced the pay proposal to the School Board as the latest component of a developing plan for placing schools into one of three tiers based on student achievement and providing resources accordingly to the campuses.

“It doesn’t matter how many programs we purchase and it doesn’t matter how many programs we put in schools, the most important thing we can focus our efforts and attention on is putting a high quality teacher in every single classroom and having a highly effective instructional and organizational leader in all of our schools,” Wright said.

“All of our work in this plan is geared toward developing the folks that we have or recruiting others to our district who can help us move the needle,” he also said, and added that for the Little Rock district to be a viable school system, the 30% of third-graders reading at grade level must, at a minimum, double within the next few years.

The retention and performances incentives for those in 13 of the academically troubled schools could be as much as $10,000 a year for principals — $6,000 base incentive plus as much as $4,000 if the school meets its campus-wide academic goals.

Principals also would be offered three-year contracts — as a way to minimize principal turnover at a campus. Wright said the multi-year contract is a way to lessen their anxiety about taking on a challenging school.

“We don’t expect miracles in a year,” he said.

For teachers at the priority or Tier III schools, there would be $5,000 for teachers with an additional $1,500 if the school meets its growth goal, according to the proposal submitted to the board earlier this month.

The schools currently identified as priority schools are Bale, Stephens, Washington, Baseline, Watson, Brady, Dr. Martin L. King, McDermott and Western Hills elementaries, along with Cloverdale and Dunbar middle schools, J.A. Fair K-8 Academy and Southwest High.

For schools that are not “priority” schools but “Tier I, autonomous” and “Tier II” or “on watch” schools, there would be a $2,500 performance incentive for all school leaders if the schoolwide growth goal is met. Teachers at those schools would receive at a minimum $1,500 if the schoolwide growth goals are achieved.

The estimated cost of the incentive totals could exceed $7 million, but that is if 100% of schools and personnel met the criteria, according to the plan.

“In 2022, 12 of 37 schools met the growth goal,” the proposal states. “A more realistic estimate for incentive costs will be less than 50% of the total estimate indicated.”

One of the four over-arching goals that has been set by the School Board for the district focuses on staff recruitment and retention. The goal is to increase recruitment and retention rates of highly qualified teachers and leaders and rank among the top five school districts in Arkansas in teacher salaries at every educational level by August 2024 and remain there every year thereafter.