Some teacher associations and media outlets treat teacher incentive pay – providing financial incentives to teachers for high performance – as a huge waste of time that should be scrapped.
On Tuesday, an article in the Dallas Morning News provided different perspectives on the issue and the process, but it didn’t say word one about the results.
I researched teacher incentive pay implementation at the local level at four different Texas school districts – Austin, Dallas, Houston, and Lamesa. What I found was that the existing teacher incentive pay programs are producing higher test scores, higher state accountability ratings, improved teacher morale, and lower teacher turnover. Funding should be increased as a next step toward the eventual replacement of our 1920s teacher pay structure.
For more background on incentive pay programs, you can read the latest issue of Veritas, a quarterly publication of the Foundation. Or you can listen to our September 17th Policy Primer on teacher compensation, or my September 19th interview on Texas PolicyCast.
Students and teachers are benefiting from incentive pay in Texas, and the fixation on process instead of product does them a grave disservice.
– Brooke Terry