Teacher Bonuses Don’t Increase Test Scores, Study Says 
 
 Written By Daniel Adair on Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010 
 
 A new three-year study released on Tuesday reveals that even significant bonuses to teachers for raising student test scores fails to yield significant results. The discovery, conducted by Vanderbilt University’s National Center on Performance Incentives in the metropolitan Nashville school system, compromises the view that merit pay for teachers is a viable method of increasing student performance in the classroom. "I think most people agree today that the current way in which we compensate teachers is broken," said Matthew Springer, executive director of the Vanderbilt center and lead researcher on the study. But we don’t know what the better way is yet.” 
 
 The results are a blow against the Obama administration’s new focus on linking teacher salary and tenure to their students’ performance. The study examined about three hundred teachers of fifth to eighth-grade math teachers and the results their students received on the Tennessee standardized exams. The Department of Education was critical of the study, claiming it “only looked at the narrow question of whether more pay motivates teachers to try harder,” whereas the goal of the DoE is to “change the culture of teaching,” only one part of which is rewarding high-performing teachers in difficult to staff schools. The American Federation of Teachers, on the other hand, praised the study, using it to emphasize their points that teachers need better training and more support administrators to better do their jobs. Merit pay is currently effectively illegal in many states, with only a handful of districts currently employing such a system. The Obama White House hoped to encourage more states to pass merit pay laws with its $4.35 billion "Race to the Top" grant competition.
– The way to increase test scores is not to give bonuses to teachers, say researchers at Vanderbilt University. A three-year study found that offers of bonuses as high as $15,000 did little to change results. The report leaves open the question of what will increase test scores, but it casts doubt on the notion of merit pay, one of the solutions being pushed by the Obama administration. “I think most people agree today that the current way in which we compensate teachers is broken," says the lead researcher. "But we don’t know what the better way is yet.” The American Federation of Teachers agrees with the study and says training is one of the key factors that needs to be improved. Story here and from AP here.