Yesterday I posted about an article in the Chicago Tribune reporting that Florida had finalised their plan to modernise teaching. There were a range of changes about to be rolled out – one of them being that teachers were to be rewarded based on how much their students learn.
The idea of providing financial incentives for teachers to increase student performance is an increasingly popular education policy around the world but it would appear that the evidence shows that this strategy simply won’t achieve the desired outcomes. At best the jury is still out as to whether or not this approach to improving student outcomes actually works, however I think most people have made up their mind. (I have previously written about the potential problems of rewarding students. You can see those posts here and here).
I was interested to see a report release by the National Bureau of Economic Research about a study that was conducted as a randomized trial involving over two hundred public schools in New York City. The report found that: