This just in: It looks like the economic stimulus package on Capitol Hill will include $200 million or “competitive grants to school districts and states to provide financial incentives for teachers and principals who raise student achievement and close the achievement gaps in high-need schools.” That sounds a lot like performance-based pay to me.
$200 million is no small figure. It’s more than twice what the federal Teacher Incentive Fund, the government’s current performance-pay program, gets each year.
We’re trying to locate some additional details; check back here and over at Campaign K-12 for more.
If it is performance pay, perhaps the Obama administration and Congress are trying to sweeten the deal with an additional $100 million for competitive grants to address teacher shortages and “modernize the teaching workforce.”