News >> Browse Articles >> K-12 News
Study Finds Merit Pay for Teachers Unsuccessful
By TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN, TX – For the $300 million spent on merit pay for teachers over the last three years, Texas was hoping for a big boost in student achievement.
But it didn’t happen with the now-defunct program, according to experts hired by the state.
The Texas Educator Excellence Grant, or TEEG, plan did not produce the academic improvements that proponents – including Gov. Rick Perry – hoped for when the program was launched with much fanfare in 2006, a new report from the National Center on Performance Incentives said.
“There is no systematic evidence that TEEG had an impact on student achievement gains,” said researchers for Texas A&M University, Vanderbilt University and the University of Missouri.
The study focused on flaws in the way the program was designed and did not conclude whether merit pay for teachers in general is a good idea. A spokeswoman for Perry, who established a pilot merit pay program four years ago that grew into the TEEG program, said the governor still endorses the concept of performance-based pay.
“The governor supports incentivizing our best teachers through merit pay and he worked with the Legislature to consolidate these programs into one with an increase in total funding,” said Allison Castle, a Perry spokeswoman.
•The researchers examined reading scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills for more than 140,000 students at schools participating in the program.
The TEEG plan, which provided incentive pay for teachers at about 1,000 campuses a year in lower-income neighborhoods, was discontinued by the Legislature after the 2008-09 school year because of design problems.
Until the national center report, however, there had been no analysis of whether the merit pay plan was working to improve student achievement – as shown by TAKS scores.
Lori Taylor of Texas A&M, one of the authors of the study, said one possible cause of the program’s failure was that bonuses were relatively small and were given to most teachers at each school – about 70 percent – so that the incentive for individual teachers to push for higher scores was “relatively weak.”
broadwaylady1
12 days ago
72 comments
I do not believe in merit pay. As the ATPE spokesperson said in the article, "one day on TAKS(the Texas achievement test)" does not give an accurate account of who is a highly effective teacher.
DasiaG
15 days ago
2 comments
Teaching is a very noble job. Because of teachers we have lawyers, engineers and lots of professional today. Unfortunately, some of them are not happy with their work because of the low salary that they get. Having a low salary is difficult because sometimes they are gaving a hard time to meet their family's need. Thankfully, there is a payday loan that they could rely in times that they are in dire need of money. But a lot of people complain that all payday lenders lead people into a payday loan trap. It can hardly be stated that it isn't possible – but the number of people in a payday loan trap is miniscule compared to the people in a credit card trap, and which of those industries benefited from the bailout? Going to an installment loan or short term loan lender (whatever you want to call them – po-tay-to, puh-tah-to) is just like any other lender – you want to only borrow funds occasionally, and get on a payment plan. The less debt you have, the better – and to avoid getting into a payday loan trap, you want to budget correctly and spend less than you're used to.
TomAnselm
17 days ago
44 comments
Like trying to nail jello to a tree. Got the nails, got the tree, got the hammer, but the dang jello just won't cooperate. Like Rosanne Rosannadanna's grandma used to say...'It's always somtin."
(Gilda Radner, "Saturday Night Live", 1970's)
God, am I really that old.
neilkelvin
17 days ago
288 comments
Great post as usual! It is so important that we remember the human part of being a teacher. It is easy to get caught up in all the other things that come with being a teacher, which can consume our days, but we need to remember that it is the relationship we develop with each student that is the real measure of teaching. We don’t teach subjects, we teach students. We are not just teachers but have other sides that need to be developed and cared for and grown.
xmas gifts