I was a public school teacher that worked in a district that attempted to measure teacher value add. There was limited pay for performance based on that metric. And the district I worked in was majority racial minority and majority living in poverty.<p>"Using the expiration of preexisting collective bargaining agreements as a source of exogenous variation in the timing of changes in pay, I show that the introduction of flexible pay raised salaries of high-quality teachers, increased teacher
quality (due to the arrival of high-quality teachers from other districts and increased effort), and improved student achievement."<p>"The main dataset contains information on the universe of Wisconsin teachers,
linked to student test scores to calculate teacher VA."<p>"Student Test Scores and Demographics.—Student-level data include math and
reading test scores in the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination (WKCE
2007–2014) and the Badger test (2015–2016), for all students in grades 3 to 8, as well
as demographic characteristics such as gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic
(SES) status, migration status, English-learner status, and disability."<p>What this study is saying is that paying teachers more for improved performance by their students on standardized tests results in higher standardized test scores of their students. That does not surprise me. In my experience, this system encouraged teaching to the test (focusing the majority of instruction on test prep rather than traditional instruction) and widespread cheating. Both of these efforts raise standardized test scores. The study assumes that standardized test scores are a direct measure of teacher quality and student achievement. In my experience that is not true.