In the South Carolina paper, University of Michigan researcher Sarah Cohodes and colleagues studied a comprehensive teacher improvement program funded by the federal government. This effort included pay incentives linked to student test scores, career advancement opportunities, and additional professional development.
The researchers compared students in middle schools that adopted this program, starting in 2007, against similar schools that didn't participate. They found benefits that carried on into high school. Students' 10th grade test scores rose and their chances of graduating high school increased, by about 4 percentage points.
Cohodes notes that when a similar program was adopted in Chicago without individual performance pay based on test scores, there were not clear gains for students. But she also believes that the comprehensive nature of the program made a difference in South Carolina. Teachers reported a more positive school climate, perhaps because the initiative raised some of their salaries and created a schoolwide focus on boosting student achievement.
"The merit pay is a key component. I just think it's not the only thing," Cohodes says.
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