Incentive Pay: Pass or Fail?

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Despite past disappointments, one third of the nation's school districts are currently poised to implement performance incentive plans for teachers.

In this Education Week Commentary, James W. Guthrie and Matthew G. Springer caution that, without further experimentation and fine-tuning, incentive pay plans will continue to fail. As a result, they argue, the potential positives of such reforms will be forever shadowed by mounting feelings of frustration and a long history of repeated failures.

What do you think? Is this second go-round a wise move, or just another fleeting and ill-advised reform dream? Should more districts establish pay-for-performance programs for teachers? Or would such policy measures likely have little effect on student achievement and teacher performance?