More K-12 teachers in SC can earn bonuses in $5M pilot program

COLUMBIA — Teachers in dozens of public schools across South Carolina are newly eligible for bonuses if their students show enough academic progress.

The state Department of Education recently announced choosing 37 schools from among 118 that applied to participate in its pilot program. They will cumulatively receive $5 million.

The size of teachers’ potential bonus is unclear. Amounts will vary depending on how many teachers earn them and how well their students perform.

The department hopes the program becomes a statewide model for rewarding excellent teachers and keeping them in the classroom.

“This initiative is about more than just pay — it’s about rewarding the educators who are moving the needle on student growth in the foundational skills of reading and math,” state Superintendent Ellen Weaver said in a news release. “When we recognize and support the very best teaching, we set a new horizon for what’s possible for students in every corner of our state.”

The latest experiment may accomplish through bonuses what legislators and state superintendents of both parties have attempted unsuccessfully for two decades: paying teachers statewide based on their effectiveness in the classroom.

Teachers in South Carolina are paid by their academic degree and years of experience, called the salary schedule.

Teacher advocacy groups have long argued it’s impossible to fairly construct a pay-for-performance model recognizing that every class is different, and some students enter their classrooms years behind. In 2019, a proposal simply to study the issue was met with immediate backlash from teachers, resulting in the idea being scuttled. It hasn’t been considered since.

Weaver first called for a statewide, voluntary incentive program in 2023. The Legislature provided $5 million for a pilot this school year.

The state budget plan approved by the House earlier this month would fund another $5 million for the coming school year.  The bonuses would be in addition to the House’s $1,500 boost in state-paid minimums for teachers. A final spending plan is still months away.

Weaver sees the number of applications as showing widespread support. In selecting which schools to include in the program, the agency gave priority to high-poverty schools with the highest teacher turnover, according to the education department.

Participating schools could choose different ways for determining teachers’ bouses. All involve measuring how much progress their students make in meeting grade-level expectations for math and reading.

Roughly half of the 37 schools opted to use results on state-standardized math and reading tests taken by third- through eighth-grade students in the spring. Other schools created their own model for determining academic growth, which include scores on end-of-course tests taken by high schoolers.

Eleven schools chose to participate in the Excellence in Teaching Awards program, which has been rewarding teachers in high-poverty schools with private donations since 2021. That model involves comparing students’ scores on district-level tests they take at the beginning and end of the school year.

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The awards began with the four Meeting Street Schools, an innovative approach to neighborhood schools launched in Charleston by philanthropist Ben Navarro to prove all students can succeed. His donor-funded awards were formalized and expanded in 2021 to high-poverty public schools throughout Charleston County.

Last school year, the state Department of Education used federal aid to bring the bonuses to schools in Allendale and Williamsburg counties, which have been managed by the state agency since 2017 and 2018, respectively. Those schools will still participate, but as part of the state-paid pilot.

Beemok Education, which manages the various education initiatives of Ben and Kelly Navarro, will oversee the bonus programs for schools in the state pilot that chose to use its model.

The bonuses help both teachers and students, said Josh Bell, president of Beemok Education. In the 28 schools in the program since 2021, student test scores have improved and teachers have said they are more likely to stay in the classroom, he said.

“We deeply believe that teachers who work really hard and get these outcomes ought to be compensated for them,” Bell said.

Last school year, rewarded teachers in Charleston County received, on average, a $5,000 bonus, while the largest single bonus was $31,000, according to Beemok Education.

Sherry East, president of the South Carolina Education Association, reiterated teachers’ concerns that paying teachers for students’ performance puts too much focus on a few tests rather than students’ overall improvement.

“Do I think there needs to be a way of recognizing high-performing teachers? Absolutely,” East said. “Do I think it should be based on test scores? Absolutely not.”

An alternative to the test-based bonuses could be to offer incentives for teachers in hard-to-hire positions, said Patrick Kelly with the Palmetto State Teachers Association. Hawaii did something similar by offering $10,000 bonuses to special education teachers beginning in 2019, which helped the state put teachers in commonly hard-to-fill roles, he said.

If education officials want to continue doing performance-based bonuses, Kelly suggested the state instead encourage districts to look at teachers’ end-of-year evaluation, which grades their teaching abilities as a whole instead of simply how well their students perform on tests.

“If you’re going to do (a bonus) on the basis of student performance, it cannot be done on test scores alone,” Kelly said.

SC Daily Gazette Editor Seanna Adcox contributed to this report.