"’To my surprise, incentive programs that rewarded process seemed to be more effective than those that rewarded outcomes,’"
said Roland Fryer, regarding his latest experiment. Fryer belatedly recognized something that had long been the centerpiece of educational wisdom. Teachers have long been taught to concentrate on their students’ "observable behaviors." We have always been taught to jealously guard time on "task on task." Teachers have always urged kids to focus on what they can control, and not get carried away with the issues of others. "Sweat the details," we have hoped, and learning will follow.
Fryer also concluded "it might be less effective to give teachers incentive pay (test scores of their students) relative to inputs (staying after school to tutor students).
Fryer thus rejected the "do what I say, not what I do" fetish of "outcomes based accountability." Being held
