TY  - RPRT
TI  - Performance Pay and Teacher Mobility: Statewide Evidence from Texas
AU  - Gooch, Zachary
PY  - 2026
T3  - EdWorkingPaper
M1  - 26-1643
PB  - Annenberg Institute at Brown University
DO  - 10.26300/dkfq-6f80
UR  - https://edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1643
AB  - Texas's Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) provides performance-based funding to school districts, with larger awards at rural campuses and campuses serving more disadvantaged students. I study whether district adoption keeps teachers in their districts and at their schools. Using statewide administrative teacher records covering 2014--15 through 2025--26 and a staggered difference-in-differences design, I estimate an average increase in district retention of 0.95 percentage points starting in the year districts begin evaluating teachers under the program, equivalent to a 5.7 percent reduction in baseline district attrition. The estimated effect reaches 1.38 points once state funding begins. The gain comes from fewer teachers moving to other districts and fewer exiting the Texas public school system. Campus retention does not detectably change on average. At rural campuses, however, more teachers stay at the same school. At the most disadvantaged non-rural campuses, district retention and within-district transfers both rise, with no measurable change in campus retention. Adopting districts also hire fewer teachers from other districts, and I find little evidence that exposure to adopting districts lowers retention in comparison districts. Rural campuses are the only group with a detectable gain in campus retention, indicating that gains in district retention need not translate into greater staffing continuity at individual schools.
ER  -