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Mathematica to Evaluate Teacher Incentive Fund
Contact: Cheryl Pedersen, (609) 275-2258
PRINCETON, N.J. (February 16, 2010)—The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), a grant program designed to support innovative approaches to reforming teacher pay, supports performance-based teacher and principal compensation systems to help attract top talent in high-needs schools. Mathematica Policy Research recently won a five-year, $7.9 million contract from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences to conduct a rigorous national evaluation of TIF. The study was mandated by the legislation authorizing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
“The concept of pay for performance continues to attract attention and support as evidenced by the magnitude of funding—up to $600 million—TIF currently receives,” said Jill Constantine, the study director, who is associate director, Human Services Research, and area leader for Mathematica’s education research. “The study will offer a thorough analysis of the effectiveness of these compensation programs, evaluate elements of their most successful incentives, and offer insights on how to successfully create and implement them.”
The study team includes Mathematica senior researcher Steven Glazerman, an expert in teacher compensation, training, and quality, as principal investigator. Matt Springer, director of Vanderbilt University’s National Center on Performance Incentives, is also a principal investigator.
Created by Congress in 2006, TIF was expanded and supported with ARRA funding in 2009. TIF's goals include reforming teacher and principal compensation to support rewards based on improved student performance; increasing the number of effective teachers teaching poor, minority, and disadvantaged students; and creating sustainable pay-for-performance systems.
The Mathematica study will evaluate performance-based compensation systems in districts receiving TIF grants in 2010 to determine the impact on student achievement and other important outcomes, such as teacher mobility. It will also examine grantees’ implementation of pay-for-performance strategies to answer pressing policy questions about how the programs are designed, communicated, and implemented. The next round of TIF grants will be awarded later this year, and the research team will begin working with grantees immediately.
Partners for the study include Vanderbilt University Peabody College and Chesapeake Research Associates.
Mathematica Policy Research, a nonpartisan research firm, provides a full range of research and data collection services, including program evaluation and policy research, survey design and data collection, research assessment and interpretation, and program performance/data management, to improve public well-being. Its clients include federal and state governments, foundations, and private-sector and international organizations. The employee-owned company, with offices in Princeton, N.J., Ann Arbor, Mich., Cambridge, Mass., Chicago, Ill., Oakland, Calif., and Washington, D.C., has conducted some of the most important studies of education, disability, health care, family support, employment, nutrition, and early childhood policies and programs.