College Readiness Assessment
Category: Pathways to and Through Postsecondary
I study a proficiency-based incentive program that rewards Advanced Placement (AP) teachers a piece-rate for each student scoring 3 or higher on the standardized exam. Using student-course-level administrative data and exploiting both withinand across-teacher variation, I find the program increased the probability that an AP enrollment results in a score of 3 or higher by 2.4 percentage points. I further find no evidence of educational triage, as gains were concentrated at the top of the AP score distribution (4s and 5s). Teacher responses also varied systematically, indicating that the effectiveness of performance pay depends jointly on incentive strength and the nature of the task.
Keywords
Performance Pay; Advanced Placement; Teacher Bonus; College Credit
Education level
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/4zqs-5835
