Donald Gratz

Don Gratz is professor of Education at Curry College, where he chairs the Education Department and serves as Director of Graduate Programs in education.  For more than a decade, he was Director of National School Reform for the Community Training and Assistance Center (CTAC) in Boston, where he organized and provided technical assistance and support in assessment, planning, instructional strategies, and school improvement in such districts as Cleveland; Salt Lake City; Denver; Newark, New Jersey, and districts in Los Angeles and Santa Clara Counties in California. 

He has written and spoken on issues of school improvement, assessment, and accountability and continues to work with urban schools and districts.  Having assisted Denver during its Pay for Performance pilot, he has focused much of his recent research and writing on issues of teacher motivation and compensation, and the extent to which performance pay plays a role in school improvement.  His 2009 book, The Peril and Promise of Performance Pay (Rowman and Littlefield Education) reviews the history, rationale, purpose, politics, and implications of the various approaches to performance pay, and their impact on teacher motivation and student success.