Incentives Alone Not Enough to Prod Teacher Effectiveness

Policy experts are renewing questions about the role of school culture and leadership in the drive to improve teaching effectiveness in the most-challenging school environments.

As states and districts increasingly explore tactics like performance-based pay, incentive programs, and bonuses to attract the best teachers to troubled schools, experts contend that such programs are unlikely to succeed over the long haul unless officials simultaneously work to improve school conditions and leadership capacity in those schools.

“Within a few years, an idealistic teacher moving to one of these schools could become disheartened” if underlying problems with school culture aren’t addressed, said Tom Carroll, the president of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, or NCTAF, a Washington-based group that advocates changes in the structure of the teaching profession. “You’re simply asking an individual to do more...