Teacher Pay for Performance Results

New: from the Institute of Education Sciences

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New from NCEE: Teacher Incentive Fund Implementation and Impacts of Pay-for-Performance After Two Years

Today, NCEE released the second of four evaluation reports that studies Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grants that were awarded in 2010 to support performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high-need schools. The report provides basic implementation information for all 2010 TIF grantees, and more in-depth implementation and impact information for the subset of 10 districts that agreed to participate in a random assignment study. The main findings among all TIF districts with 2010 awards are: * Ninety percent of all TIF districts in 2012–2013 reported implementing at least 3 of the 4 required components for teachers, and only about one-half (52 percent) reported implementing all four. This was a slight improvement from the first year of implementation. * Near the end of the second year of implementation, 65 percent of TIF districts reported that sustainability of the program was a major challenge. In contrast, no more than one-third of districts reported that other activities related to their program were a major challenge. For the subset of 10 districts that agreed to participate in a random assignment study, key findings on the effect of pay-for-performance on educators include the following: * Few evaluation districts structured pay-for-performance bonuses to align well with TIF guidance in the grant competition notice. * Educators’ understanding of key program components improved from the first to the second year, but many teachers still did not understand that they were eligible for a bonus. They also continued to underestimate how much they could earn from performance bonuses. * Offering educators pay-for-performance had small, positive impacts on their students’ reading achievement; impacts on students’ math achievement were not statistically significant but similar in magnitude. To read the report, visit http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20154020/index.asp To learn more about the study research design and the impact evaluation of TIF, visithttp://ies.ed.gov/ncee/projects/evaluation/tq_incentive.asp.