For decades, probably longer, teachers and others have debated the politically loaded issues of what constitutes appropriate teacher pay. James Guthrie, of the National Center on Performance Incentives, Vanderbilt University's Peabody College, heads a team examining one aspect of that question: whether paying teachers an incentive for student achievement increases student academic performance. The team examines empirical data collected through a quasi-experimental design.

Question: What makes the Vanderbilt project distinctive?

Guthrie: Teacher participation in the project is entirely voluntary. It also includes a “control group” for comparison purposes. This is the only valid method of judging whether the test scores of some, but not all, students will be affected by making those teachers eligible for incentive payments.

This center's thinking and output will likely help shape future discussions of about teacher pay and value-added pay. Tableteers and others who use mobile PCs in schools may find it useful to monitor this project. Some insightful edupreneur will find the study design useful for proposing a similar study of value-addings of mobile PCs iin schools.

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