Reviewing the research literature on performance pay (or teacher pay incentive) systems in the United States, the author explores some of the most prominent proposed and practiced systems. He explores positive and negative outcomes for the various systems and provides recommendations on how to implement performance pay systems. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

This book provides an invaluable resource for school teachers, administrators, board members, policy makers, and citizens who would like to understand what's behind performance pay, what might work and what will not, and how to build a school improvement effort that includes teacher compensation as one of its strategies.

Whether referred to as "pay-for-performance" (PFP) or "merit pay," attempting to tie educators' compensation to their performance in the classroom and students' performance on high-stakes tests has been a key component of many educator compensation reform efforts in the last five years. This issue looks at PFP systems broadly and includes not only systems that provide rewards for increased student achievement, but also for other tasks such as engaging in professional development and taking on added roles and responsibilities. Since the last time that "The Progress of Education Reform" addressed merit pay (June 2010), several rigorous evaluations of prominent PFP programs have been completed, and the U.S. Department of Education has intensified its efforts to promote PFP in public schools though Race to the Top and increased appropriations for the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF). TIF, which provides funds for states, school districts and charter schools to implement merit pay systems, has received $893 million in appropriations since FY 2006. These developments warrant another look into PFP. This issue of "The Progress of Education Reform" describes PFP models and presents recent research findings and their implications for policy. (Contains 2 tables and 8 endnotes.).

This book discusses various pay and compensation initiatives in use nationwide, highlighting: (1) How Are Teachers Compensated?" (current status of teacher compensation and the changing context of teaching); (2) "What Have We Learned from Attempts at Change?" (three approaches to compensating teachers, recent short-lived reform efforts, and other factors supporting compensation reform); (3) "The Elements of Pay and Compensation" (traditional pay, new approaches to pay, pay for behaviors or outcomes, and benefits as part of compensation); (4) "What Is the Relationship between Pay and Motivation?" (theories of motivation, implications of motivation theories for compensation, applications to education, and compensation factors motivating teachers); (5) "Rewarding Individual Teachers for Developing and Deploying Needed Knowledge and Skills" (knowledge- and skill-based pay and examples of such pay structures); (6) "School Bonuses for Improved Student Performance" (group-based performance awards, examples of performance awards, and gain-sharing programs); (7) "Designing and Implementing Alternative Teacher Compensation Systems" (compensation and school improvement, three design strategies, and stakeholder roles); and (8) "Compensation To Enhance Teacher Quality and Supply" (staffing and compensation challenges, issues, and innovations). Two resources present generic models of knowledge- and skill-based pay and principles for implementing change in compensation. (Contains approximately 335 references.) (SM)

The concept of pay for performance for public school teachers is growing in popularity and use, and it has resurged to once again occupy a central role in education policy. Performance Incentives: Their Growing Impact on American K-12 Education offers the most up-to-date and complete analysis of this promising—yet still controversial—policy innovation. Performance Incentives brings together an interdisciplinary team of experts, providing an unprecedented discussion and analysis of the pay-for-performance debate by • Identifying the potential strengths and weaknesses of tying pay to student outcomes; • Comparing different strategies for measuring teacher accomplishments; • Addressing key conceptual and implemen - tation issues; • Describing what teachers themselves think of merit pay; • Examining recent examples in Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, and Texas; • Studying the overall impact on student achievement.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of a performance-based pay initiative and crystalizes the design issues and implementation challenges that confounded efforts to translate this promising policy into practice. This story has much to say to academics and policymakers who are trying to figure out the combinations of incentives and the full range of resources required to establish incentive programs that promote an adequate supply and equitable distribution of capable and committed educators for our public schools. The book uncovers the conditions that appear to be necessary, if not fully sufficient, for performance-based initiatives to have a chance to realize their ambitious aims and the research that is required to guide policy development. In so doing, the authors consider the thorny question of whether performance-based pay systems for educators are worth the investment. “Education reformers have long known that performance-based pay is devilishly difficult to implement. All too often top-down, piecemeal changes squander scarce resources and undermine trust. Now, Rice and Malen’s first-rate study of one district’s comprehensive pay reform reveals that even well-planned, collaborative efforts easily go awry, casting further doubt on the promise of pay incentives to improve schooling. This book is required reading for all well-intentioned reformers.” —Susan Moore Johnson, Harvard University “Rice and Malen provide a compelling account of one district’s experience with a performance-based incentive program for educators. This book is a rare and valuable analysis of a policy uncovering both the technical and political challenges inherent in designing and implementing reform even under the most promising of conditions. Given the enduring interest in and ongoing federal funding available for pay-for-performance policies—and the surprising lack of research evidence undergirding this popularity—it behooves policymakers, reformers, funders, and students to learn from this important case.” —Julie A. Marsh, University of Southern California