No Evidence That Incentive Pay for Teacher Teams Improves Student Outcomes: Results from a Randomized Trial

In recent years, education policymakers have shown growing interest in the potential of incentive pay for teachers as a way to improve student performance. Champions of this approach contend that incentive pay based on student performance can motivate teachers to improve their teaching practices, which in turn will boost student achievement; in addition, over the longer term, rewarding quality teaching has the potential to entice better teachers into entering the profession. However, some critics argue that paying teachers for student performance may erode teacher satisfaction with the intrinsic rewards of teaching and undermine morale. To date, evidence on teacher pay-for-performance programs has been inconclusive; most studies have found no effects on student outcomes.