This study describes the teacher pay for performance plans designed and implemented by the public schools participating in the Governor’s Educator Excellence Grant (GEEG) program in Texas. GEEG is a federally funded, incentive pay program that awarded non-competitive grants, ranging from $60,000 to $220,000 each year for three years, to 99 Texas public schools. Schools participating in GEEG took advantage of the considerable discretion granted to them by the Texas Education Agency to design incentive plans exhibiting an array of differences on several key plan variables. This study explores the following research questions: (1) How did schools propose to distribute awards to teachers and how were those awards actually distributed in practice? (2) What is the relationship between teacher characteristics and the dollar amounts awarded to teachers in the GEEG plans? (3) What are the determinants of GEEG plan characteristics and the distribution of awards?

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