Is Merit Pay the Answer?

By Kim Marshall

To most people, it seems obvious that teachers should earn more when their students do well. If salespeople get extra pay when they sell more products, why shouldn’t teachers be rewarded for higher test scores? U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, among others, has been talking up this idea.

But it turns out that merit pay is an ineffective strategy for improving teaching and learning. Here’s why.

• It undermines teamwork. Teachers who are rewarded for their own students’ test-score gains are less likely to share...