School-Wide Bonus Program: A Teacher Incentive Pay Program to Improve Student Achievement in High-Poverty Schools

School-Wide Bonus Program is a program that links teacher salaries to student achievement to induce teachers to focus on raising student achievement and stimulate innovation in the school system as a whole. The program awards bonuses to schools that meet school-wide goals, primarily based on student achievement on state math and reading exams. Treatment schools that voted in favor of the program would earn a lump-sum bonus if school-wide goals were met. Schools that either achieved a target score or were awarded an "A" accountability grade for two consecutive years received bonuses equal to $3,000 per union teacher, while schools that fell short but managed to meet 75 percent of the target score received $1,500 per union teacher.