A performance-bonus system that made use of "student learning objectives"—academic growth goals set by teachers in consultation with their principals—helped improve student achievement in schools using the measure, concludes a new study issued today.
The study, by the Community Training and Assistance Center, a Boston-based nonprofit technical-assistance and policy-evaluation firm, found that students taught by participating teachers in math improved on average at a rate 12 percent higher than those in comparison schools. That rate of growth was enough to narrow gaps with their peers in those comparison schools, who started somewhat ahead of them. In reading, students in participating schools also improved by a rate that was 13 percent greater than that of their peers in comparison schools.
