In the early 1990’s, the idea of merit pay for teachers got hot. Like so many policy proposals, it was not a new one. This 1962 booklet reviews the copious evidence that existed at the time and does so in layman’s terms.

This was an important report, as its findings about the Title I (formerly Chapter 1) program fed into the congressional discussions to rework the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 into the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

You can download a copy at https://eric.ed.gov/?q=title%3a%22promising+results%22&id=ED434418.

Per the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), “The primary purpose of the Digest of Education Statistics is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from prekindergarten through graduate school.”

You can download this particular volume at https://eric.ed.gov/?q=title%3a%22digest+of+education+statistics+1982%22&id=ED225272. Copies of volumes from the early 1980s through recent years can be found at https://eric.ed.gov/?q=title%3A%22digest+of+education+statistics%22. NCES offers copies (1995-present) online at https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/.

The annual Digest of Education Statistics and the annual Condition of Education (copies here) are go-to volumes for anyone studying the state of American schooling.