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Monday, July 30, 2012

An Urban Teacher's Education: Loss Aversion: Paying Teacher More and Less for Inferior Instruction

An Urban Teacher's Education: Loss Aversion: Paying Teacher More and Less for Inferior Instruction:


Loss Aversion: Paying Teacher More and Less for Inferior Instruction

You may have of a recent suggestion for enticing teachers to find ways to raise test scores: give teachers money at the beginning of the year, and then take it away from them if their scores don't improve appropriately. Its academic name is "Loss Aversion." The idea is that people work harder when an undesirable behavior might cause them to lose something they already have than if a desirable behavior might earn them something in the future.

This scheme has come recently to the public debate following a recently publised study conducted on Chicago teachers, which was subsequently reported on in The Atlantic and The Wall Street Journal.

Educators have understandably reacted negatively to the suggestion that districts might do well to consider