Options for Studying Teacher Pay Reform Using Natural Experiments.

Paying teachers for their performance rather than solely on experience and education is not a new idea, but it is gaining traction in today's climate of educational accountability. Yet the research has not kept up with policy, in part because most programs do not last long enough to be studied rigorously. This report documents an effort to identify over 100 teacher pay reform programs across the nation that might be studied retrospectively using existing data, to inform policymakers about how to structure a successful teacher incentive program. The authors profile seven programs for which data exist to evaluate impacts on teacher productivity or recruitment and retention; they also outline a research design for carrying out these studies.