Merit pay fails to up student scores

DALLAS, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- A $300 million teacher merit pay plan in Texas, intended to improve student test scores and achievement, hasn't produced the desired results, experts say.

The Texas Educators Excellence Grant plan, launched in 2006, provided incentive pay for teachers at almost a thousand campuses, mostly in lower-income neighborhoods, the Dallas Morning News reported Wednesday.

Researchers at Texas A&M University examined reading scores on a state assessment test for more than 140,000 students at schools in the program.

"There is no systematic evidence that TEEG had an impact on student achievement gains," the researchers, hired by the state, said. Lori Taylor of Texas A&M said one reason for the failure was that the incentives were fairly small and a majority of teachers at each participating school were given them, so the incentive for any single teacher to push for improved scores was "relatively weak," she said.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry was a strong supporter of the now-defunct program. The governor still endorses the idea of performance-based pay, a spokeswomen for Perry says.