More bang for your buck: The effect of Minnesota's Alternative Pay for Teachers on the math achievement of high school students

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 created pressure for schools to increase student achievement. Many states created alternative pay programs for teachers in an attempt to raise student achievement and meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind. Minnesota created the Alternative Pay Program for Teachers, or Quality Compensation (Q Comp), which aims to improve teacher quality in order to improve student achievement. The Q Comp program has only existed for three years, and many schools have only implemented the program for two years. This study examined the relationship between Q Comp and student achievement on the 11th grade Mathematics Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment-II (MCA-II) and the achievement levels of subgroups on the Mathematics MCA-II. The results from this study did not show a significant difference in the MCA-II scores between schools implementing Q Comp and schools not implementing Q Comp. The study also failed to show a significant difference in the proportion of subgroups reaching the "proficient" level on the MCA-II between Q Comp and non-Q Comp schools. The information garnered from this study will provide one more piece of evidence for policy makers and school leaders to examine as they assess the effectiveness of the Q Comp program.