Effect of Receiving Financial Awards on Teachers' Retention, Attendance Rates, and their Students' Achievement Gains

• In Event: 207 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 16. Teacher Hiring and Retention

Abstract

Although aimed at arresting the reproduction of disadvantage within schools through financial incentives for teachers, performance pay programs receive little attention from sociologists. We use measures describing students, teachers, and schools in the Houston Independent School District from 2008-09 through 2010-11 to investigate whether teachers’ behaviors were altered through receipt of an award. Compared to otherwise similar grade 3-8 teachers who did not receive an award for the 2009-10 school year, teachers who received an award were more likely to be retained in the district by August 2011, showed more improvement in their attendance rates from 2008-09 to 2010-11, and had higher mean student gains on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills and Stanford tests from 2009-10 to 2010-11. Results are robust with a control for 2008-09 award receipt and regression discontinuity techniques. Teachers also appear to respond more positively to larger than smaller award amounts.

Authors

• Dara Renee Shifrer, Rice University

• Ruth N. Lopez Turley, Rice University

• Holly E. Heard, Rice University