The Center for American Progress has just released yet another report calling for performance pay for teachers.  Ezra Klein wrote about the event for the release:

Showing yet again that all discussion of education reform and pay-for-performance is brutally squelched on the Left, I just got an invite to a Center for American Progress panel on...education reform and pay-for-performance. For now, I'm assuming it's a trap.

It was a double decker trap, given that one of the papers was by Joan Snowden, who used to work with us here at AFT as the director of the Educational Issues department.  Given that Joan and I are pretty much in agreement on the need to change the way teachers are paid and on the importance of doing it fairly and carefully, I think everyone should read this.  And if you’re new to this issue, her look at four ways to change teacher pay – based on skills and knowledge, extra responsibility, shortage areas, or performance – is a nice lens for viewing something that people usually oversimplify.  Notice that these range pretty much from less to more controversial.  I’d also recommend the section on “doing it wrong” and “what have we learned”  in particular.

Sherman Dorn notes that this paper doesn’t lend support to a broad brush federal approach on pay for performance.  I do think, though, that it does point the way to how we can continue to make some progress on this. And if you like to get your hands on the original research, track down Joan’s reference to Murnane and Cohen’s piece “Why Most Merit Pay Plans Fail and a Few Survive.”  It’s from back in the ‘80s, but it is a classic.