When asked the question "are you willing and able to accept the limited compensation teaching will offer for the foreseeable future," one must seriously think with their heart and soul before answering fast and greedily. Although teaching will never earn a teacher millions, it's the attention and love for school that they place in a young leader of tomorrow's mind that could possible save the lives of millions. "Teaching is a rewarding and demanding profession-one that has the power to shape America's future. Teachers are responsible for teaching young people all the different things that society needs. Without someone to teach how will children ever learn and thus how will they survive?"(NTR, 2002) .
Compensation is simple known as the reimbursement of something in a form other than the original way it was given to you. There are four main types of alternative compensation systems going on today. Those four types are pay for performance, knowledge-and-skills based performance award programs, and compensation for certification with the Nation Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Schools in Indiana, Colorado, and Minnesota are beginning to start paying teachers based on the performance of their students" test scores (Urbanski and Erskine 2000). This compensation can be considered a little harsh however if teachers reached their students like they are suppose to then most of their students should past standardized state test. However The National Education Association voted against the decision that would have established pay for performance provided the systems were clearly stated, subject to objective measurement, and did not use student test scores to determine salaries (Archer, July 2000). .
Colorado and Ohio are among some of the states that have systems based on knowledge and skill. Tests such as the Praxis and INTASC are tests that properly assess teachers" core content knowledge, clinical teaching practices and pedagogy.