Gwinnett County Teachers Getting Merit Based Bonuses

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA - Some Gwinnett County Public Schools teachers are going to receive an end of the year bonus as part of the district’s newly launched Performance-Based Teacher Compensation system.

There are 3,144 teachers representing 138 schools selected to receive $12 million worth of bonuses based on student achievements in the 2018-19 school year. They will be distributed in a one-time payment on Dec. 18, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

In 2015, the school district began implementing a compensation system that rewards teachers for exceptional performance rather than years of service. Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks and his staff began investigating performance-based award systems of other school districts as early as the mid-2000s, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

Wilbanks said the reason for implementing the award system is that teachers simply deserve it.

“We employ some of the best teachers in the profession, but historically the highest-performing teachers have not been recognized and rewarded financially for the truly outstanding work they do,” Wilbanks told the Gwinnett Daily Post.

Award amounts are distributed based on data to produce a score for teacher performance.

Assistant Superintendent of Leadership Development Jeff Mathews said the district settled on the system of distribution in an effort to try to reward as many teachers as possible.

In the plan, the 1,033 top-performing teachers in the district judged at elementary, middle and high school levels were awarded $6,208.80.

The district has spent two years developing its methodology. The hope within GCPS is that the performance-based compensation system will help the district retain more talented teachers in the future., according to the Gwinnet Daily Post.

“We feel we have made an excellent start on a teacher-reward system that states loudly and clearly that we appreciate our teachers and their work,” Wilbanks said in a statement. “That said, we know that in this first administration of the awards, we may identify ways to further improve the system.”