A Big Apple for Educators: New York City???s Experiment with Schoolwide Performance Bonuses: Final Evaluation Report

This report—a joint effort by RAND, Vanderbilt, and the National Center on Performance Incentives—drove the final nail into the coffin of New York City’s shaky and pricey School-Wide Performance Bonus Program. We learn from this analysis that Gotham’s foray into school-wide bonuses “did not improve student achievement at any grade level.” In fact, average math and ELA scores for participating elementary and middle schools were lower than those of the control group. (There were no effects on scores at the high school level.) To understand why, analysts queried participating teachers—ninety-two percent of whom said the program didn’t affect the way they did their jobs. That shouldn’t surprise anyone, since the bonuses amounted to only $1,500 after taxes, and were tied to higher test scores school-wide—something over which individual teachers have little control. Further, a third of teachers said they didn’t even understand the criteria for obtaining the bonus. Thorough and informative, this report should act as a warning bell for anyone looking to replicate Gotham’s poorly designed (and now defunct) program.