Design Characteristics of Effective U.S. Teacher Pay-for-Performance: Implications from Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Incentive pay programs for teachers are a popular tool for improving student achievement. Prior studies reveal large variation in the design of incentive programs and their effect on student learning, but do not link policy design characteristics to outcomes. We coded all available experimental or quasi-experimental studies that incentivized the performance of teachers on eight policy characteristics. For 25 causal analyses of U.S. pay-for-performance programs 1997-2020, the effect on student learning is not related to the incentive size but other policy design characteristics (including group size, bonus structure, and evaluation criteria) show important relationships to effect sizes.

Keywords: teacher incentive pay, meta-analysis, policy design, pay-for-performance, policy characteristics