Linking Financial Incentives to Teacher Accountability in School Districts

Abstract

Recently there has been a concerted effort directed at designing incentive pay schemes for school district personnel in order to increase their performance and productivity. Because of political forces operant in school districts, incentive pay schemes based upon individual performances are extremely difficult to implement, and therefore usually ineffective. This study reports the use of a school district "profit sharing" incentive scheme based upon collegial, not individual, teacher performance and sets incentives according to a non-linear payment schedule.