Combining Multiple Measures in Performance-Based Compensation Systems

Because no single measure of educator practice or student outcomes can adequately capture the wide range of knowledge and skills an educator employs to demonstrate effectiveness, states and districts should consider incorporating multiple measures of performance and outcomes into their performance-based compensation systems. Multiple measures include measures of student performance (student achievement scores, value-added scores, student learning objectives, performance portfolios), as well as measures of teacher practice (observations of instruction).

Many educator evaluation systems already include multiple measures. This report offers a broad overview of the measures available to be used in a compensation system as well as different potential approaches to combining measures in a performance-based compensation system.