Dear Governor,
I am writing to you about your proposed policy of implementing a teacher incentivized
pay program which will pay teachers who are in the top 10% of value-added scores nationwide a
$1,000 bonus. This is a complex, multidimensional problem which hosts an array of both
upsides and downfalls for not only teachers but students, principals, administrations, and school
districts across the state. Therefore, it is crucial to critically analyze all angles using available
data/experiments as the resulting policy will change the landscape of how our public schools
function.
At face value this seems like a policy which will improve student achievement, teacher
intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, and teacher compensation for those in the top 10%. However,
almost all the data (Fryer, 2013; Goodman & Turner, 2013; Fryer et al., 2012; Springer et al.,
2010) available doesn’t prove this correlation between incentivized programs and student
achievement levels, especially in individualized programs. Additionally, data shows that once
student achievement has become incentivized intrinsic motivation for teachers falls dramatically
overtime (Jones). For example, if a student is incentivized to read, it may work in the short term,
