Incentives do not rule

Dank Pink summarizes the research that--for the vast majority of jobs--monetary incentives do not actually improve employee performance. In many cases, incentive pay actually harms employee productivity.

It's useful to keep in mind the fact that, by embracing the monetary incentive model, business interests demonstrate their utter incompetence at their own game, let alone their forays into influencing public policy. Businesses seldom have the slightest clue what is best for their own company; why should we believe that they know how to create jobs or fight poverty? This is one of the best examples of business' tendency towards ignorance of--if not outright hostility towards--evidence-based practice. And, if incentives don't even work for most types of paid employment, why do we design public policy around the idea that monetary incentives rule human behavior? 18 minutes well spent, after the jump:

Lesson for Teach for America in statistical versus practical significance

Image: Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp (source)

A recent study has many touting the benefits of TFA. The most overheated has been Dylan Matthews (Teach for America is a deeply divisive program. It also works.), but Matthew Yglesias is similarly condescending (Since empirical evidence doesn't change anyone's mind about this issue...), though Yglesias is at least more reasoned in his assessment (see below). No, the study didn't show that TFA works. It showed that it works for one subject in economically disadvantaged schools versus inexperienced teachers, provided you assume that TFA volunteers weren't teaching to the test. And, just because something's statistically significant doesn't mean it has any real world value. I'll let Dana Goldstein take it from here:

TFA math teachers outperformed non-TFA math teachers in their schools by .06 standard deviations in middle school and .13 standard deviations in high school. The talking point will be that this is the equivalent of an additional 2.6 months of learning per schoolyear. But it's important to realize this represents a relatively modest improvement in student achievement. For the average child in this study, who scored in just the 27th percentile in math compared to her peers across the country, having a TFA teacher will help her move up to the 30th percentile--still a long way off from grade-level math proficiency.

Right. TFA "works," in that it can improve student performance in one subject from well below grade level to...still well below grade level. Also worth noting: