NCPI director Matthew Springer and center affiliate Dale Ballou’s evaluation of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) was featured in Education Week following the findings presented at NCPI’s first national conference on performance incentives. Springer and Ballou analyzed annual gains in mathematics test scores over four years for schools using TAP and comparable schools not operating the program. The researchers controlled for differences between TAP and comparison schools, such as the poverty level of students and other school characteristics that might be associated with the likelihood of a school deciding to participate in TAP. They found TAP schools’ achievement gains to outpace those of non-TAP schools at the elementary level. This positive effect did not hold at the secondary level (grades 6-10).

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