Test-Tied Bonuses to Take Effect in Houston

Teachers will get more money if their students improve exam scores.

The Houston school district has launched a large-scale plan to pay teachers bonuses based on the year-to-year improvement of their own students’ test scores.

Approved by the district’s board of education last week, the plan is expected to put millions more dollars into rewards for teachers whose students show better-than-average improvement compared with similar groups of students.

“It’s a real departure from business as usual, in that it takes [bonuses] to the individual teacher and classroom, and it’s also based on a ‘value added’ model that looks at how effective a teacher is in moving the [achievement] needle by the end of the year,” said Dianne Johnson, the president...