WHAT WE’RE READING
Paying top teachers more money to switch to high-need schools sounds like a slam dunk, but as we discussed here at SCHOOLED last fall, the details matter a lot. Sarah Sparks looks at the Texas Teacher Incentive Allotment, reporting on a new analysis by Patrick Massey showing why merit pay is so difficult to get right. Dan Goldhaberexplains how bonus pay might bring a teacher to a new school—if the pay increase is enough to offset moving costs. But even then, according to Patrick, many teachers use their status as “a public signal that says, ‘I’m a good teacher.’” Sarah spells it out:
To use merit pay for recruiting, Goldhaber and Massey agreed programs must both target highly effective teachers and use large-enough bonuses to overcome the perceived difficulties of teaching at higher-poverty schools, while also preventing existing high-quality teachers from leaving high-need schools.
For more on this latest analysis, Fordham’s Amber Northern breaks down the working paper in detail—and shares her own thoughts on the findings—on a recent Education Gadfly Show Podcast.
EXTRA CREDIT:
Jeb Bush, “Building a parent-choice program took Florida years. Texas gets it right from the start.”
Chris Cerf, “Accountability Works. Outcomes-Based Contracting Makes It Work Better” (see also: Jill Barshay, “Paying vendors for student results”)
Danyela Souza Egorov and Jennifer Weber, “Mamdani Wants Savings? He Can Find Them in the Education Budget”
Jorge Elorza, “Note to Democrats: Supporting Unions Isn’t the Same as Supporting Education”
Allysia Finley, “Los Angeles Schools Run Out of Other People’s Money”
Vladimir Kogan, “Why Ohio’s third-grade retention law worked (until lawmakers killed it)”
Kerry McDonald, “Get the Feds Out of Curriculum Decisions” (on the READ Act)
Jed Wallace, “Forever Young: Reinvention, Elders, and the Next Generation – CharterFolk Chat with Caprice Young”
Matthew Yglesias, “A strange gifted education success story”
Editor's note: This was first published on Mike Petrilli's Substack, SCHOOLED, a twice-weekly free Substack and email newsletter restarting the education-reform conversation.
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