States push to pay teachers based on performance
By Dorie Turner/Associated Press
For parents and politicians hungry for better schools, the idea of paying teachers more if their students perform better can seem as basic as adding two and two or spelling "cat." Yet just a handful of schools and districts around the country use such strategies. In some states, the idea is effectively illegal. That could all be changing as the federal government wields billions of dollars in grants to lure states and school districts to try the idea. The money is persuading lawmakers around the country, while highlighting the complex problems surrounding pay-for-performance systems. (more...)