Compensation Models for Central Office and School Support Staff

In recent years, most of the focus for developing performance-based compensation systems has been devoted to classroom teachers and school-level leaders. However, we know that the work of central office and school support staff can have an effect not only on the physical condition of the school building but the climate of a school as well. Given the importance of their contributions to student learning and the school environment, this report provides examples of performance-based compensations systems that acknowledge the work of those who help to create healthy, safe, clean, and supportive learning environments for students.

The examples of performance-based compensation offered in this paper are limited in that the compensation given is not based on the performance of individuals but rather is based on schoolwide measures of student growth. Due to this limitation, the second part of this paper looks at examples of comprehensive evaluation systems that have included central office and school support staff in their model. While the examples of evaluation systems provided do not link evaluation to compensation, they do act as potential models for which performance-based compensation could be applied.