State Teacher Policy Database Homepage › Rhode Island

Teacher Compensation

Learn more about how Rhode Island is leveraging compensation to attract a qualified, effective, and diverse teacher workforce.
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Rhode Island’s Performance

Ungraded
Explore the key policy levers below to learn more about how Rhode Island is implementing Teacher Compensation policies. (NCTQ does not assign rankings to states for this policy area.)
See how Rhode Island performs across policy levers to improve Teacher Compensation
Differentiated Pay for Hard-to-Staff Schools and Subjects
Performance Pay
Pay for Prior Work Experience
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Moderate
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Ungraded

Why focus on Teacher Compensation?

Competitive compensation is a key strategy states can leverage to attract skilled, effective educators. Research shows that policies like strategic pay for working in hard-to-staff schools and subjects, paying teachers more for being highly effective, or rewarding career changers for prior work experience can incentivize behavior, successfully bringing effective teachers into schools1 or subject areas2 that most need them, and increase teacher retention.3

Recommendations for Rhode Island for Teacher Compensation

Differentiated Pay for Hard-to-Staff Schools and Subjects

  • Differentiate pay for teachers working in hard-to-staff certification areas
  • Differentiate pay for teachers working in high-need or hard-to-staff schools
  • Ensure that the differential pay for working in a high-needs school is at least at the evidence-based threshold of 7.5% of the salary or typically $5,000
  • Ensure that the differential pay for working in a hard-to-staff certification area is at least at the evidence-based threshold of 7.5% of the salary or typically $5,000

Pay for Prior Work Experience

  • Direct districts to make adjustments in starting salary for new teachers who possess relevant work experience

Performance Pay

  • Require the use of performance when determining teacher salaries
  • Offer incentives to districts to incorporate performance into teacher compensation
References
  1. Morgan, A. J., Nguyen, M., Hanushek, E. A., Ost, B., & Rivkin, S. G. (2023). Attracting and retaining highly effective educators in hard-to-staff schools (No. w31051). National Bureau of Economic Research.
  2. Theobald, R., Xu, Z., Gilmour, A., Lachlan-Hache, L., Bettini, E., & Jones, N. (2023). The Impact of a $10,000 Bonus on Special Education Teacher Shortages in Hawai‘i. CALDER Working Paper 290-0823.
  3. Bueno, C., & Sass, T. R. (2018). The effects of differential pay on teacher recruitment and retention. Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Research Paper Series (18-07).