Study Links Merit Pay to Slightly Higher Student Scores

High school seniors in schools with merit-pay programs for teachers score slightly higher on standardized tests than their counterparts at schools that offer no special salary incentives, according to a national study by the University of Florida.

Interest in teacher pay-for-performance programs has grown in recent years, and some jurisdictions, such as Florida, have even begun to mandate them. But David N. Figlio and Lawrence W. Kenny, both economists at the university in Gainesville, said their study may be the first in the country to find a link between financial incentives for individual teachers and better student achievement. It’s scheduled to be published in a forthcoming issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Public Economics.

“Basically, the data haven’t existed to really allow you to do much with this topic,” Mr. Kenny...