CHOOSING TO ADVANCE: MOVING TEACHERS IN THE CHAPEL HILL CARRBORO CITY SCHOOLS TO A KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS-BASED COMPENSATION SYSTEM

Abstract

This study examines the design decisions, or choice architecture, that was made in planning and implementing a knowledge and skills-based career ladder in the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS). At the start of the 2014-2015 school year leadership of the CHCCS set about designing a knowledge and skills-based career ladder with the goals of reimagining professional development in the district and creating a system that allowed for teacher career and financial advancement. This system would become known as Project ADVANCE. At the end of the first year of design work a basic outline of this program had been created and shared with staff. Survey results showed that the staff of the CHCCS was mostly anxious about the implementation of Project ADVANCE (Pepper, 2015). This Project ADVANCE Implementation Team was formed in July of 2015 and this 13-member team was tasked with designing the specifics of the program and responding to the concerns expressed by staff in the spring of 2015. This study analyzes the design decisions, or choice architecture, made by the Implementation Team and how those decisions were able to improve perception of Project ADVANCE such that when staff members were given the option to opt-in or out of the first year of implementation, over 75% of eligible staff chose to opt-in. These design decisions are specifically analyze through the lenses of Thaler and Sunstein's 2009 book about choice architecture, Nudge, Langley, Moen, Nolan, Nolan, Norman, and Provost's 2009 The Improvement Guide, and Pink's 2009 work on motivation, Drive. By examining the design decisions made through these three lenses one can draw conclusions on how these decisions helped to improve perception of Project ADVANCE among CHCCS staff. In addition recommendations can be drawn from this change effort that can be related to other school districts or major institutions that are looking at making large, wide-ranging, and potentially controversial change.