NEA Myth Goes South

When members of your local teacher’s union tell you they can teach better if you pay them more, ask them to respond to a new study from Vanderbilt University, not exactly a free market hot bed. “Rewarding teachers with bonus pay, in the absence of any other support programs, does not raise student test scores, according to a new study issued today by the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of education and human development in partnership with the RAND Corporation,” researchers at Vandy found.

“We tested the most basic and foundational question related to performance incentives — Does bonus pay alone improve student outcomes? – and we found that it does not,” Matthew Springer, executive director of the National Center on Performance Incentives, stated. “These findings should raise the level of the debate to test more nuanced solutions, many of which are being implemented now across the country, to reform teacher compensation and improve student achievement.” Yeah, they should.

Springer is an assistant professor of leadership, policy and organizations at Peabody College.

Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.

If you would like to comment on this article, e-mail contact@academia.org