Study: Texas' teacher merit pay program hasn't boosted student performance

[tonysam]

AUSTIN – 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.



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Well no kidding "merit pay" doesn't have an effect on student "performance." It is designed to eventually get rid of the traditional step pay scales of years of experience and education, which was designed originally to prevent favoritism in schools. No matter if this particular scheme was in the form of bonuses; the whole notion of "merit pay" has everything to do with reducing teachers' salaries overall and undermine those evil teachers' unions.

[tyne]

1. Well...

it's a good thing O's grants are more tweeked than JUST to test scores.

[YvonneCa]

2. Please post in GD or...

...LBN. That's an important article. There is a design flaw...and we're just about to repeat it nation-wide.

[YvonneCa]

3. As I posted earlier...

...Duncan (and Obama) are following someone who has totally missed the point.The author said: "When I was at Bertelsmann, we were constantly focused on how to incentivize the workforce, inject increasing accountability, deciding where to substitute technology for human capital. "

The workforce in schools is the STUDENTS...not the teachers. THAT's the bottom line and it's why we keep failing at trying to fix schools. Teachers are a part of middle management, as APs and principals are. We have to be on the same team to manage our students' academic growth. EVERYTHING these NYC reformers are doing misses that point and it's CRITICAL to fixing schools.

I agree with the need to fix our schools to compete globally. I understand that requires big changes....go for it.

I do not...and never... have opposed the goal. AND I want Obama to be the President that 'gets it done right.' But these guys are WRONG. They are focussing on the wrong thing, and we in education know it. THAT's why teachers keep speaking out...not because we oppose the goals.

[tonysam]

5. Will do. n/t

[KristinGarris]

4. I thought the point of merit pay was to give teachers a bonus WHEN students do better

So, what were they using as the basis for bonuses?

[YvonneCa]

6. Good question...

...

[HelenWheels]

7. We don't need a study to know this

it's common sense

[sandnsea]

8. It's competition between 2 different programs

TEEG and DATE.

They have put all the money into the DATE program, and now Austin doesn't get any extra at all.

That's in the article too.

Does anybody have info from what the Austin Superintendent has to say?