My bias is betrayed in the title of this post. Instead of providing a detailed explanation here about my I think merit pay is a bad idea, I think I’ll leave it to those who are better versed and more articulate to to make the case.

Here are my choices for The Best Resources For Learning Why Teacher Merit Pay Is A Bad Idea:

Late last year, the most extensive study ever conducted on merit pay was unveiled in Tennessee, and showed it didn’t work. I’ll start off with several resources and analyses of that study:

Three Questions For Those Who Dismiss The Nashville Merit Pay Study comes from Matthew Di Carlo at the Shanker blog.

Persistently Low-Performing Incentives also comes from the Shanker blog. Here, Matthew also examines other merit pay studies in addition to the one in Tennessee.

The long, failed history of merit pay and how the Ed Department ignores it is a piece in the Washington Post where Diane Ravitch discusses this new study, as well as others.

The research question that wasn’t asked comes from Bruce Baker.

You can access the actual Tennessee study here.

Here are additional resources not related to the Nashville study:

What’s Wrong With Merit Pay is by Diana Ravitch.

Another report was published last year by the Education Commission of the States examining several studies on merit pay. How do they analyze them?

Each of the studies of the four pay-for-performance systems found no conclusive
evidence to link the new merit pay system with higher student achievement.

Merit Pay Misfires is by Al Ramirez and appeared in Educational Leadership.

Teachers as Performers and Pay-4-Performance Plans was written by Larry Cuban.

Superintendents oppose governor on teacher pay is a newspaper article from New Jersey.

Spend Money Like It Matters was written by Frederick Hess and appeared in Educational Leadership.

Attention To Pay is another good post from The Shanker blog.

Merit Pay: A Perspective From the Classroom is also worth a look.

Study: $75M teacher pay initiative did not improve achievement is a report on the failed use of teacher merit pay in New York City.

The Folly of Merit Pay is by Alfie Kohn.

Merit Pay Is Not Merited is by Walt Gardner at Ed Week.

Think tank: Overpaying staff can reap rewards for businesses is by Daniel Pink.

Thoughts on the Failure of Merit Pay is by Diane Ravitch.

No merit in merit pay for teachers is by Walt Gardner and appeared in the Guardian

Very Useful Articles On Motivation

Performance Anxiety is from The Drucker Institute.

Merit Pay: Pay teachers enough so that money is no longer an issue is by Mel Riddile. Thanks to David B. Cohen for the tip.

Dan Ariely On Pay For Performance

Holding Accountability To Account is a report by Richard Rothstein that was written in 2008, but it’s new to me.

The New York City Department of Education recently abandoned a three year teacher performance bonus program that cost $56 million. The New York Times reports:

The decision was made in light of a study that found the bonuses had no positive effect on either student performance or teachers’ attitudes toward their jobs.

The study’s authors said:

Teachers also reported that improving as teachers and seeing their students learn were bigger motivators than a bonus…

Here’s one more excerpt from the article:

The results add to a growing body of evidence nationally that so-called pay-for-performance bonuses for teachers that consist only of financial incentives have no effect on student achievement, the researchers wrote.

Bob Sutton has written a post about the study, titled New York City Halts Teacher Bonus Program: Another Blow to Evidence-Resistant Ideology that is a must-read, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has published a column on it, too.

Zombie Postmortem: Why Merit Pay Died in NYC, and Why It’ll Rise Again (and Again, and Again…) is by Justin Baeder at Ed Week.

Merit Pay: The End Of Innocence? is from The Shanker Blog.

Will Rahm Emanuel’s Merit-pay System Work Where Others Haven’t? is by Freakonomics.

The Debate over Teacher Merit Pay: A Freakonomics Quorum has some very thoughtful responses.

“Idaho schools tie merit pay to parent involvement” is a post I wrote about an incredibly idiotic plan.

Variable pay-for-performance is a folly is a very interesting analysis from economists.

What Are Achievement Gains Worth — To Teachers? is an analysis of a failed New York merit pay scheme.

The Latest Wrinkle About Merit Pay for Teachers is by Walt Gardner at Education Week.

Stop Tying Pay to Performance:The evidence is overwhelming: It doesn’t work. is from The Harvard Business Review.

Merit pay, Merit pay, Merit pay… is from The Daily Kos and I’m also adding it to the same list.

Beyond Anecdotes: The Evidence About Financial Incentives And Teacher Retention is from The Shanker Blog.

Additional suggestions are welcome.

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You might also want to explore the nearly 600 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.