I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3683 

To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to establish 

the Teacher Incentive Fund Program, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 

Mr. PRICE of Georgia (for himself and Mr. KLINE of Minnesota) introduced 

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 

Labor 

A BILL 

To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 

of 1965 to establish the Teacher Incentive Fund Program, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Teacher Incentive 

5 Fund Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. TEACHER INCENTIVE FUND PROGRAM. 

7 Part C of title II of the Elementary and Secondary 

8 Education Act of 1965 is amended by adding at the end 

9 the following: 


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1 ‘‘Subpart 6—Teacher Incentive Fund Program 

2 ‘‘SEC. 2371. PURPOSES; DEFINITIONS. 

3 ‘‘(a) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this subpart are— 

4 ‘‘(1) to assist States, local educational agencies, 

5 and nonprofit organizations to develop, implement, 

6 or improve comprehensive performance-based com7 pensation systems solely for teachers and principals, 

8 especially for teachers and principals in high-need 

9 schools, who raise student academic achievement and 

10 close the achievement gap; and 

11 ‘‘(2) to study and review performance-based 

12 compensation systems for teachers and principals to 

13 evaluate their effectiveness, fairness, quality, consist14 ency, and reliability. 

15 ‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this subpart: 

16 ‘‘(1) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligible en17 tity’ means— 

18 ‘‘(A) a local educational agency (including 

19 a charter school that is a local educational 

20 agency), or a consortium of such agencies; 

21 ‘‘(B) a State educational agency, or other 

22 State agency designated by the chief executive 

23 of the State to participate under this subpart; 

24 or 

25 ‘‘(C) a partnership of— 


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1 ‘‘(i) one or more agencies described in 

2 subparagraph (A) or (B), or both; and 

3 ‘‘(ii) at least one nonprofit organiza4 tion. 

5 ‘‘(2) HIGH-NEED LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGEN6 CY.—The term ‘high-need local educational agency’ 

7 has the meaning given the term in section 2102. 

8 ‘‘(3) HIGH-NEED SCHOOL.—The term ‘high9 need school’ has the meaning given the term in sec10 tion 2312. 

11 ‘‘(4) PERFORMANCE-BASED COMPENSATION

12 SYSTEM.—The term ‘performance-based compensa13 tion system’ means a system of compensation solely 

14 for teachers and principals that— 

15 ‘‘(A) differentiates levels of compensation 

16 primarily on the basis of measurable increases 

17 in student academic achievement; and 

18 ‘‘(B) may include— 

19 ‘‘(i) differentiated levels of compensa20 tion on the basis of high-quality teachers’ 

21 and principals’ employment and success in 

22 hard-to-staff schools or high-need subject 

23 areas; and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) recognition of the skills and 

2 knowledge of teachers and principals as 

3 demonstrated through— 

4 ‘‘(I) successful fulfillment of ad5 ditional responsibilities or job func6 tions; and 

7 ‘‘(II) evidence of high achieve8 ment and mastery of content knowl9 edge and superior teaching skills that 

10 shall be gathered through classroom 

11 observations or other criteria devel12 oped through scientifically valid re13 search (as defined in section 200 of 

14 the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 

15 U.S.C. 1021)). 

16 ‘‘SEC. 2372. TEACHER INCENTIVE FUND GRANTS. 

17 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—From the amounts appropriated 

18 to carry out this subpart, the Secretary is authorized to 

19 make grants on a competitive basis to eligible entities to 

20 develop, implement, or improve performance-based com21 pensation systems in participating schools. 

22 ‘‘(b) PRIORITY.—In making such a grant, the Sec23 retary shall give priority to an eligible entity that con24 centrates its proposed activities on teachers and principals 

25 serving in high-need schools. 


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1 ‘‘(c) APPLICATIONS.—To be eligible to receive a grant 

2 under this subpart, an eligible entity shall submit an appli3 cation to the Secretary, at such time and in such manner 

4 as the Secretary may reasonably require, that includes— 

5 ‘‘(1) a description of the performance-based 

6 compensation system that the applicant proposes to 

7 develop and implement or improve; 

8 ‘‘(2) a description and demonstration of the 

9 support and commitment from teachers and prin10 cipals in the targeted schools, the community, and 

11 local educational agency or agencies for the perform12 ance-based compensation system, including dem13 onstration of consultation with teachers and prin14 cipals on the development and implementation of the 

15 performance-based compensation system; 

16 ‘‘(3) a description of how the eligible entity will 

17 develop and implement a fair, rigorous, and objective 

18 process to evaluate teacher, principal, and student 

19 performance, including the baseline performance 

20 against which evaluations of improved performance 

21 will be made; 

22 ‘‘(4) a description and demonstration of how 

23 teacher and principal views were included in the de24 velopment of the performance-based compensation 

25 system; 


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1 ‘‘(5) a description of the local educational agen2 cy or local educational agencies to be served by the 

3 project, including such demographic information 

4 about students in the schools to be served by the 

5 project as the Secretary may request; 

6 ‘‘(6) information on student academic achieve7 ment, the quality of the teachers and principals, and 

8 existing compensation, bonuses, and incentive sys9 tems for teachers and principals in the schools to be 

10 served by the project; 

11 ‘‘(7) a description of how the applicant will use 

12 grant funds under this subpart in each year of the 

13 grant; 

14 ‘‘(8) a description of the comprehensive, focused 

15 professional development that is aligned with stu16 dent content and achievement standards that the ap17 plicant will implement to support the performance18 based compensation system; 

19 ‘‘(9) an explanation of how the grantee will con20 tinue its performance-based compensation system 

21 after the grant ends; 

22 ‘‘(10) a description, if applicable, of how the ap23 plicant will define the term ‘high-quality’ for the 

24 purposes of section 2371(b)(4)(B)(i), through the 

25 use of measurable indicators; 


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1 ‘‘(11) a description of the State, local, or phil2 anthropic funds that will be used to supplement the 

3 grant and sustain the activities at the end of the 

4 grant period; and 

5 ‘‘(12) A description of how the applicant will 

6 evaluate the project annually, including any objective 

7 measures that are clearly related to the goals for the 

8 project and information on how the evaluation will 

9 produce quantitative and qualitative data. 

10 ‘‘(d) USE OF FUNDS.— 

11 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A grantee shall use grant 

12 funds provided under this subpart only to develop, 

13 implement, or improve, in collaboration with teach14 ers, principals, other school administrators, and 

15 members of the public, a performance-based com16 pensation system consistent with the requirements of 

17 this subpart. 

18 ‘‘(2) AUTHORIZED ACTIVITIES.—Authorized ac19 tivities under this subpart may include the following: 

20 ‘‘(A) Developing appraisal systems that re21 flect clear and fair measures of student aca22 demic achievement. 

23 ‘‘(B) Developing appraisal systems that re24 flect clear and fair measures of teacher and 


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1 principal performance based on demonstrated 

2 improvements in student academic achievement. 

3 ‘‘(C) Conducting outreach within the local 

4 educational agency (or agencies) or the State to 

5 gain input on how to construct the appraisal 

6 system and to develop support for it. 

7 ‘‘(D) Paying, as part of a comprehensive 

8 performance-based compensation system, bo9 nuses and increased salaries to teachers and 

10 principals who raise student academic achieve11 ment, so long as the grantee uses an increasing 

12 share of non-Federal funds to pay these mone13 tary rewards each year of the grant. 

14 ‘‘(E) Paying, as part of a comprehensive 

15 performance-based compensation system, addi16 tional bonuses to teachers who both raise stu17 dent academic achievement and either teach in 

18 high-need schools or teach subjects that are dif19 ficult to staff, or both, so long as the grantee 

20 uses an increasing share of non-Federal funds 

21 to pay these monetary rewards each year of the 

22 grant. 

23 ‘‘(F) Paying, as part of a comprehensive 

24 performance-based compensation system, addi25 tional bonuses to principals who both raise stuVerDate Nov 24 2008 03:52 Oct 01, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3683.IH H3683

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1 dent academic achievement and serve in high2 need schools, so long as the grantee uses an in3 creasing share of non-Federal funds to pay 

4 these monetary rewards each year of the grant. 

5 ‘‘(e) DURATION OF GRANTS.— 

6 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may make 

7 grants under this section for periods of up to 5 

8 years. 

9 ‘‘(2) LIMITATION.—An agency described in sub10 paragraph (A) of section 2371(b)(1) may receive 

11 (whether individually or as part of a consortium or 

12 partnership) a grant under this subpart only once. 

13 Such an agency may continue to receive that grant 

14 for the period of that grant, but shall not receive 

15 (whether individually or as part of a consortium or 

16 partnership) any other grant under this subpart. 

17 ‘‘(f) EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION.—To the extent 

18 practicable, the Secretary shall ensure an equitable geo19 graphic distribution of grants under this section. 

20 ‘‘(g) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.— 

21 ‘‘(1) Each eligible entity that receives a grant 

22 under this section shall provide, from non-Federal 

23 sources, an amount (which may be provided in cash 

24 or in kind) to carry out the activities supported by 

25 the grant equal to— 


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1 ‘‘(A) for the first year of the grant, 10 per2 cent of the amount received for that year under 

3 the grant; 

4 ‘‘(B) for the second year, 25 percent; 

5 ‘‘(C) for the third year, 40 percent; 

6 ‘‘(D) for the fourth year, 55 percent; and 

7 ‘‘(E) for the fifth year, 70 percent. 

8 ‘‘(2) The Secretary may waive all or part of the 

9 matching requirement described in paragraph (1) for 

10 any fiscal year for an eligible entity described in sec11 tion 2371(b)(1)(A) if that eligible entity is a high12 need local educational agency, a consortium of high13 need local educational agencies, or a charter school 

14 that is a high-need local educational agency and the 

15 Secretary determines that applying the matching re16 quirement to such eligible entity would result in seri17 ous hardship or an inability to carry out the activi18 ties described in subsection (d). 

19 ‘‘(h) SUPPLEMENT, NOT SUPPLANT.—Grant funds 

20 provided under this section shall be used to supplement, 

21 not supplant, other Federal or State funds. 

22 ‘‘(i) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sub23 part shall be implemented in such a way so as to require 

24 a collective bargaining agreement be in place in order to 

25 receive funds or participate under this subpart. 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 2373. REPORT AND EVALUATION. 

2 ‘‘(a) REPORT.—The Secretary shall provide an an3 nual report on the implementation of the program to the 

4 Congress. 

5 ‘‘(b) EVALUATION.— 

6 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall, 

7 through grant or contract, carry out an independent 

8 evaluation of the program under this subpart. 

9 ‘‘(2) CONTENT.—The evaluation shall meas10 ure— 

11 ‘‘(A) the effectiveness of the program in 

12 improving student academic achievement; 

13 ‘‘(B) the satisfaction of the participating 

14 teachers or principals; and 

15 ‘‘(C) the extent to which the program as16 sisted the eligible entities in recruiting and re17 taining high-quality teachers and principals, es18 pecially in hard-to-staff subject areas. 

19 ‘‘SEC. 2374. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

20 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be ap21 propriated to carry out this subpart such sums as may 

22 be necessary for fiscal year 2010 and each of the suc23 ceeding 5 fiscal years. 

24 ‘‘(b) RESERVATION.—The Secretary may reserve not 

25 more than 3 percent of the funds appropriated to carry 

26 out this subpart for any one fiscal year for the cost of 


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1 the evaluation under section 2373(b) and for technical as2 sistance and program outreach.’’. 

Æ 


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