Performance incentives, evaluation improved Dallas schools

Performance-based teacher evaluation and compensation systems in Dallas led to improved student performance on standardized tests in both math and reading and concentrated turnover among lower-rated teachers, Eric Hanushek, Minh Nguyen, Ben Ost, and Steven Rivkin report in a new article for ‘Education Next.’

Though high-stakes teacher evaluations have faded from the spotlight, improving teacher quality remains essential, especially as schools nationwide continue to address pandemic learning loss.

In 2013, the Dallas Independent School District (ISD) overhauled its traditional pay and evaluation system. The district introduced the Teacher Excellence Initiative (TEI), a performance-based evaluation and pay system using multiple measures, including student achievement and survey responses; and Accelerating Campus Excellence (ACE), a program offering financial incentives to attract top teachers to low-performing schools while redefining educator excellence and restructuring principal evaluations.

The authors analyzed student test data from 2015 to 2019, comparing Dallas ISD reforms to similar high-poverty Texas schools that did not implement evaluation or pay changes.

Among the key findings:

Student achievement rose with evaluation and pay reform. Math scores in Dallas ISD increased by 20 percent of a standard deviation over four years, while scores remained flat in comparable schools without reform. Reading scores followed a similar trend.

Higher-rated teachers stayed and earned more. Teachers who remained in Dallas ISD under the new pay system had evaluation scores 50 percent of a standard deviation higher than those who left.

Financial incentives improved teacher quality in ACE schools. Before ACE, over half of teachers in participating schools were rated below proficient. After offering signing bonuses and stipends up to $10,000, more than half ranked in the top three performance categories.

Student gains were immediate but declined without sustained support. In the first year of ACE, student test scores jumped 40 percent of a standard deviation in math and 20 percent in reading. However, when ACE schools improved and exited the program in 2019, student achievement dropped. Meanwhile, similar low-performing Dallas ISD schools that did not participate saw no significant change.

“The Dallas reforms prove what’s possible when teacher evaluation and compensation reform are part of a comprehensive reset of districtwide personnel policies and practices,” Hanushek and colleagues wrote. “The district virtually eliminated the dependence of salary on experience and postgraduate degrees, radically altering the traditional systems of evaluation and pay found throughout the United States. As a result, both teacher quality and student achievement improved.”

SOURCE Education Next