Teaching Profession Report Roundup

Teacher Incentives

By Stephen Sawchuk — April 17, 2012 1 min read
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A cash incentive appears to have helped seven school districts attract effective teachers to low-income schools, though the longer-term impact of the transfers on teacher retention and student achievement remains to be seen, a recent analysis concludes.

The results are the first findings from the Talent Transfer Initiative, a project funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Through the project, teachers with high value-added scores can get bonuses of $20,000 to transfer to low-achieving schools, which are traditionally hard to staff.

Researchers from Mathematica Policy Research of Princeton, N.J., found that the project succeeded in attracting teachers to those schools, but it took a large pool to secure enough of them. Only 24 percent of eligible applicants applied, and 6 percent transferred, on average, across the districts studied.

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A version of this article appeared in the April 18, 2012 edition of Education Week as Teacher Incentives

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