Study: Texas' teacher merit pay program hasn't boosted student performance [View All]

[tonysam]

AUSTIN – For the $300 million spent on merit pay for teachers over the last three years, Texas was hoping for a big boost in student achievement.

But it didn't happen with the now-defunct program, according to experts hired by the state.

The Texas Educator Excellence Grant, or TEEG, plan did not produce the academic improvements that proponents – including Gov. Rick Perry – hoped for when the program was launched with much fanfare in 2006, a new report from the National Center on Performance Incentives said.

"There is no systematic evidence that TEEG had an impact on student achievement gains," said researchers for Texas A&M University, Vanderbilt University and the University of Missouri.



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Well no kidding "merit pay" doesn't have an effect on student "performance." It is designed to eventually get rid of the traditional step pay scales of years of experience and education, which was designed originally to prevent favoritism in schools. No matter if this particular scheme was in the form of bonuses; the whole notion of "merit pay" has everything to do with reducing teachers' salaries overall and undermine those evil teachers' unions.