Chapter 10: Exploring the Nexus Between Educational Inputs, Distribution of Performance, and Incentives

This chapter builds on the earlier work in education productivity and advances the analyses by linking incentives offered by schools to productivity of inputs. A major finding from this study is that school inputs matter more for the low performers and are frequently more productive in schools that offer incentives. Another key finding suggests that to the extent that those with the lowest salary teach the lowest performers, increasing the salary floor increases performance at the bottom of the performance distribution. Additionally, it appears that the existing incentives may not be sufficiently explicit to render all of the inputs productive. It is also found that an increase in performance dispersion associated with an increase in mean performance is typically less dramatic in schools that recognize accomplished teachers. Policy implications are discussed.