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Vanderbilt Peabody wins $10 million to study teacher performance incentives

topics: Education Reform, Teacher Preparation, PPI

August 30, 2006 by Melanie Moran

A new national research and development center has been created at Vanderbilt's Peabody College to answer one of the thorniest questions in education policy – do financial incentives for teachers, administrators and schools affect student achievement?

The new National Center on Performance Incentives was established through a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.

"This center will give us hard data that we can use to finally understand the relationship between performance and incentives and will give policymakers real input on how best to invest resources to improve student learning and success,” Camilla Benbow, Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development, said.

The new center’s first project will examine the effect of student achievement-related bonuses for teachers on individual and institutional behavior and dynamics in Metro Nashville Public Schools.

"Nashville understands the importance of education and the value of innovative research," Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell said. "Having the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt means that the lessons learned here in our city are ones that will provide crucial information to educators and policymakers across our country."

“I am impressed with the honesty and openness of the researchers on the project and believe that this collaborative work will be worthwhile. An ‘incentive’ is in the eye of the beholder,” Jamye Merritt, president of the Metropolitan Nashville Education Association, said. “This research will help us better define the word as it relates to teaching.”

James Guthrie, professor of public policy and education, chair of the Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations and director of the Peabody Center for Education Policy, is executive director of the new center. Matthew Springer, research assistant professor of public policy and education, is the center’s director.

Peabody is also home to the National Center on School Choice. The new center makes the college the only education school in the country to host two national research and development centers funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.

“As a national research and development center charged by the federal government with exercising leadership on performance incentives in education, our team is committed to a fair and honest evaluation, not some predetermined outcome,” Springer said.

Joining with Vanderbilt in the new center's work is The RAND Corporation, a nonprofit public policy research institute based in Santa Monica, Calif. The center is also working closely with Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, the Metropolitan Nashville Public School Board, the Metropolitan Nashville Education Association, Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell, The Nashville Alliance for Public Education and the Tennessee Education Association.