Teacher Incentive Fund¶
Product or Programme · All products and programmes
Evidence · 18 claims (5 for, 9 mixed, 4 against) · 7 studies (5 causal, 2 associational),q2–q3· 0 of 7 report an effect size · 17 claims rest on one study
Description¶
A U.S. federal grant programme that supports performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high-need schools.
Components¶
- Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) federal grant program supporting performance-based compensation systems: The Teacher Incentive Fund is a federal grant program that "provides federal grants to support performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high-need schools." The 2010 cohort was evaluated nationally over multiple years, with this snapshot covering the third of four years of implementation in the 2013–2014 school year, including in-depth analysis in ten evaluation districts. (Alison Wellington et al. (2016))
- Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grants supporting performance-based compensation systems: The Teacher Incentive Fund is a federal grant program established by Congress in 2006 that "provides grants to support performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high-need schools." The grants pursue two stated goals: reforming compensation to reward educators for improving student achievement, and increasing the number of high-performing teachers in high-need schools and hard-to-staff subjects. This report examines the 2010 grant cohort's first year of implementation. (Max et al. (2014))
- Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) performance-based compensation grants for high-need schools: The Teacher Incentive Fund is a federal grant program established by Congress in 2006 that "provides grants to support performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high-need schools." The evaluated intervention centers on performance bonuses tied to educator effectiveness and student achievement, implemented within districts' performance-based compensation systems over four grant years. (Hanley Chiang et al. (2017))
- Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) performance-based compensation program for teachers and principals in high-need schools: The Teacher Incentive Fund is a federal grant program that "provides grants to support performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high-need schools." The 2010 grantee cohort was required to implement four program components for teachers, and the program uses performance measures and pay-for-performance bonuses whose communication to educators proved challenging in early implementation. (Jeffrey Max et al. (2014))
- Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) performance-based compensation program: The Teacher Incentive Fund is a federal grant program that "supports performance-based compensation systems in high-need schools." Its grant incentives "aim to raise student achievement by improving teacher effectiveness and workforce quality." The program required districts to implement four components, and Mathematica evaluated its implementation and bonus impacts. (Jeffrey Max et al. (2014))
Claims¶
- Few districts structured pay-for-performance bonuses to align well with TIF grant guidance [~W] — (also cited [-W]); (also cited [-W])
- Many teachers misunderstood whether they were eligible for performance bonuses or the amount they could earn [~W] — (also cited [-W])
- After three years of Teacher Incentive Fund implementation, pay-for-performance bonuses had small positive impacts on student math and reading achievement in ten evaluation districts [+W]
- Educators in schools offering pay-for-performance bonuses tended to be less satisfied than those in schools without bonuses [-W]
- TIF districts expected most educators would receive a bonus, inconsistent with guidance for challenging pay-for-performance [-W]
- Most teachers and principals reported satisfaction with professional opportunities, school environment, and the TIF program [+W]
- Districts implemented most components of the performance-based compensation system throughout all four years, but fewer than half planned to keep offering performance bonuses once the grant ended [~W]
- Traditional salary schedules may not reward effective teaching or give the most effective teachers incentives to work in high-need schools, motivating performance-based compensation [+W]
- Many teachers had only a limited understanding of the TIF bonus program: about 40 percent of eligible teachers knew they could receive a bonus, and teachers typically estimated the maximum bonus at about 40 percent of the actual maximum [-W]
- By the second year of implementation, TIF performance bonuses improved reading and math achievement by 1 to 2 percentile points, equivalent to about four weeks of additional learning [+W]
- The average TIF bonus was about 4% of average teacher salary, below the 5% recommended by TIF grant guidance for substantial bonuses [-W] — (also cited [~W])
- After the first year of implementation, fewer than half of 2010 TIF districts implemented all four required program components for teachers, though a large majority implemented at least three [~W]
- In the 10 evaluation districts, educators did not always understand the performance measures and pay-for-performance bonuses used for TIF [~W]
- More than half of teachers in the evaluation districts did not know they were eligible for pay-for-performance bonuses [~W]
- Teachers in the evaluation districts underestimated the size of pay-for-performance bonuses they could earn through TIF [~W]
- Many educators misunderstood the performance measures and the pay-for-performance bonuses under TIF [~W]
- Fewer than half of districts implemented all four required components of TIF, making full implementation challenging [~W]
- The TIF evaluation provides an in-depth analysis of implementation and pay-for-performance impacts for ten districts after three years, and program-wide implementation descriptions for all 2010 grantees [+W]
Related Products and Programmes¶
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Key Sources¶
- Alison Wellington, Hanley Chiang, Kristin Hallgren, Cecilia Speroni, Mariesa Herrmann, Paul Burkander. (2016). Implementation and Impacts of Pay-for-Performance: The 2010 Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) Grantees After Three Years (Study Snapshot). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/
- Max, Jeffrey; Constantine, Jill; Wellington, Alison; Hallgren, Kristin; Glazerman, Steven; Chiang, Hanley; Speroni, Cecilia. (2014). Evaluation of the Teacher Incentive Fund: Implementation and Early Impacts of Pay-for-Performance After One Year. Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/evaluation-of-the-teacher-incentive-fund-implementation-and-early-impacts-of-payforperformance-after
- Hanley Chiang, Cecilia Speroni, Mariesa Herrmann, Kristin Hallgren, Paul Burkander, Alison Wellington. (2017). Evaluation of the Teacher Incentive Fund: Final Report on Implementation and Impacts of Pay-for-Performance Across Four Years. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs
- Jeffrey Max, Jill Constantine, Alison Wellington, Kristin Hallgren, Steve Glazerman, Hanley Chiang, Cecilia Speroni. (2014). Early Implementation Experiences of the 2010 Teacher Incentive Fund Grantees (Snapshot). NCEE Study Snapshot, Mathematica Policy Research. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/
- Jeffrey Max, Jill Constantine, Alison Wellington, Kristin Hallgren, Steven Glazerman, Hanley Chiang, Cecilia Speroni. (2014). Pay for Performance: Evaluating the Teacher Incentive Fund (In Focus Brief). Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/pay-for-performance-evaluating-the-teacher-incentive-fund
- Alison Wellington, Hanley Chiang, Kristin Hallgren, Cecilia Speroni, Mariesa Herrmann, Paul Burkander. (2016). Evaluation of the Teacher Incentive Fund: Implementation and Impacts of Pay-for-Performance After Three Years (Executive Summary). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
product |
id |
teacher-incentive-fund |
title |
Teacher Incentive Fund |
description |
A U.S. |
status |
review |
moved_from |
element/teacher-incentive-fund-grant-program, element/teacher-incentive-fund-grants-element, element/teacher-incentive-fund-performance-compensation-grants, element/teacher-incentive-fund-program-element, element/teacher-incentive-fund-tif-program |
product_kind |
programme |
generated |
by process:sweep-kinds on 2026-10-10 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
4 — alison-wellington-2016, max-2014, hanley-chiang-2017, jeffrey-max-2014 |
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