After a brief period of inactivity, more states and districts appear open to the idea of giving teachers additional pay for taking on certain kinds of roles or accelerating student achievement—with experiments and full-fledged programs under way in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Utah, among others.
The idea of “performance” or “merit pay”—setting teachers’ compensation in part on their students’ achievement—has a long and contentious history. Advocates have long claimed it rewards the most effective teachers and encourages them to stay in the classroom, while critics argue models often use narrow, ill-fitting test measures for teacher quality and competitive bonuses discourage teachers from collaborating.