Many school reform efforts are seeking new ways to structure the teaching profession. Dr. Mary Laski joins us to discuss a program that integrates pay-for-performance as a key element. Their results show definitively positive effects in both near- and long-term outcomes, and we ponder how monetary incentives may be received at scale.
Later, we read how the rate limit for simple learning in lab mice makes rapid practice functionally identical to spaced practice. We consider the implications for interleaved teaching.
- First Segment – 02:28 – Performance Pay Reform Effects
- Second Segment – 28:33 – Space Learning in Lab Mice
Segment 1 transcript coming soon.
Featured Guest
Mary LaskiResearch Assistant Professor / Research Principal
Arizona State University / Center on Reinventing Public Education
Primary Citations
- Cohodes, S. R., Eren, O., & Ozturk, O. (2026). The long run effects of a teacher-focused school reform on student outcomes. Journal of Public Economics, 253, 105561. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105561
- Burke, D.A., Taylor, A., Jeong, H. et al. Duration between rewards controls the rate of behavioral and dopaminergic learning. Nat Neurosci (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02206-2
Supplemental Citations
- TAP: More Than Performance Pay (Ed Week)
- Collective incentive studies (h/t Paul Bruno)
- The Micropolitics of Implementing a School-Based Bonus Policy: The Case of New York City’s Compensation Committees (Marsh, 2012)
- Teacher Salary Bonuses in North Carolina (Vigdor, WP2008)
- The Dallas school accountability and incentive program: an evaluation of its impacts on student outcomes (Ladd, 1999)
- Limitations in the Use of Achievement Tests as Measures of Educators’ Productivity (Koretz, 2002)
- Teacher Incentive Pay and Educational Outcomes: Evidence from the New York City Bonus Program (What Works Clearinghouse, 2012)
- https://www.marylaski.com/
- Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE)
Featured Beverage
In Studio Prime, we drink Apex Predator, a farmhouse ale from Off Color Brewing in Chicago, IL.
In Studio Boston, we drink Surya Saison, a farmhouse ale with herbs from Oxbow Brewing Co. in Oxford, ME.