REAP's biggest goal is to connect action-based research with effective policy change that makes a meaningful difference in the lives of China's rural poor families. Our recently completed Teacher Performance Pay project was designed with policy change in mind. Teacher performance pay addresses the low education quality and extremely high dropout rates found in rural schools by focusing on teachers and tying improved teaching to monetary incentives.
In 2009, the Chinese government launched a nationwide policy asking schools to implement teacher performance pay. However, in 2012, REAP researchers found that almost half of rural schools still had not done so, and most programs that were in place did not lead to improved student achievement. Therefore, REAP researchers tested three different teacher incentive designs, with the goal of identifying which scheme boosted student achievement the most. Overall, the "Pay-for-Percentile" design, which rewarded teachers for focusing on low-achieving students in addition to high-achievers (thereby differing sharply from most incentive schemes that have been used in China) generated remarkable improvements in overall student test scores.
When the REAP team presented these results to the prefectural government in Tianshui, Gansu province, policymakers requested our support in upscaling the project over the next three years. China Education Daily, a national newspaper published by the Department of Education with daily readership in the millions, also printed a feature article on REAP's findings.
In response to this article, we recently received a handwritten letter from a principal working at a rural school in Anhui province requesting support in implementing REAP's successful teacher performance pay design in his school as well. An English translation of his letter, which underscores the practical impact of teacher performance pay on the daily lives of students and education workers, is printed here:
"Dear Professor Shi,
"Forgive my intrusion, my name is Su Qi and I am the principal of Anhui Lixin County Qi Ming Secondary School, Zip: 236700 Tel: 13856881938.
"When I read an article in the China Education Daily about the research that your team has conducted on the "Pay for Percentiles Teacher Performance Pay Program” I became very excited. For many years we have been plagued by these same rural school management problems and now you have helped us to solve them; this is wonderful! I can’t help but feel quite excited, so I wrote this letter.
"Our school is located in a nationally designated poverty county, and we are a rural secondary school. 98 percent of our students are rural children and 90 percent of students are left-behind children [left-behind by migrant parents]. Given this lack of parental care, the teachers are basically the students’ guardians. Due to a chronic lack of parental guidance, our students’ behavior is poor and their academic performance is even worse. It’s not that the teachers don’t want to teach well, it’s just that as soon as a student’s grades increase slightly their parents take them to a better ranked school in the county seat or the city. Every year we have fewer and fewer students.
"The teachers are helpless, and the school is even more helpless. As principal, I was very confused about how to stimulate the enthusiasm of our teachers. Now, the government has a performance pay policy for which they give us more than five thousand yuan each year and I try to use that money to stimulate the enthusiasm of our teachers. However, the national policy requires us to divide that money into different categories for "teaching ethics, ability, diligence, achievements, and integrity," with small amounts of money going to each category, so in the end there is no strong intervention and no real difference in pay for the best teachers and the worst teachers. This national performance pay policy cannot incentivize teachers. This is very disappointing.
"When I saw the research you had conducted about this topic I was very excited, especially because you found the program was successful. We really want to implement the “incentive program” that you designed and I hope that you can help us to do it. Thank you, thank you!!!
"Yours sincerely,
Su Qi
November 11, 2014"
Read Principal Qi's handwritten letter (in Chinese) and the China Education Daily article he refers to (in Chinese and English) below.
Susanna Loeb
