Teacher Bonuses for Transfers to Failing Schools
Texas is among the only states that have tried teacher merit pay systems for years — and has yet to prove they can work. Now, in Houston, where HISD has tried various merit pay systems over a decade, a new federal program is paying teachers $10,000 a year for two years — much more than previous Texas programs — to transfer to one of the city's lowest performing schools.
Of all the vexing questions surrounding teacher quality in impoverished schools, among the most difficult to answer is this: If districts can convince strong teachers from higher performing schools to transfer to ...
Comments (1)
JJ Baskin
I think it is important to distinguish between merit pay (rewards based on collective and/or individual performance) and transfer bonuses. The policy field has not done a great job in parsing the various categories resulting in a bad brand image.
There is no question in my mind that great teachers that take on the hardest jobs deserve differentiated pay. The initial research is easy--did teachers respond to the challenge? Their success in moving the needle once in the school is a little more challenging to research: One would hope that no district in their right mind would invest in getting great teachers into a school without also investing in a great principal and parental/community outreach programs. But to isolate the teacher impact in the presence or absence of the other interventions is a pretty tough task.