Pay-4-Performance: Individual vs. Group Incentives
Schools are identified as failures under No Child Left Behind. Turning around a school may include firing the staff or even closing the school. In short, the school is the unit for punishing failure.
And that is smart because when it comes to determining failure policymakers understand that schools are collectives of adults and children where structures and group cultures have an enormous influence on what individual teachers and students do. They also recognize that schools are interdependent units of teachers–the 4th grade teacher depends upon the kindergarten through third grade teachers to prepare her students for the work that her 10 year-olds will be doing. Similarly, high school physics teachers depend upon 9th grade math
