Minnesota: Three more Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area school districts have decided to take part in Minnesota's voluntary $86 million, Q-Comp performance pay program.

South Washington County is the only one of the three that is noteworthy, because it provides a great lesson in how not to do performance pay: maximum bonuses of only $500 and a sure-fire incentive that no great teacher will want to pass up: less time with the kids. The county is offering three additional professional development days for teachers who meet school and classroom goals.

Alaska: In spring 2007, the state of Alaska will begin doling out a relatively small number of good-sized bonuses--up to $5,500 per person. Passed by virtue of some last-minute political maneuvering, the bill promises awards not just to teachers but to "everyone who is encouraging our students do their best in school." Details such as the relative values of a pat on the back and teaching a child to read have yet to be worked out.

Also, in case you missed it (and we did), the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) published a great brief in May to judge the fairness of using teacher evaluation instruments that assess teacher knowledge and skills (such as Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching) for the purposes of deciding pay. The study finds a positive correlation between the rating teachers earned on an instrument like Danielson's and student achievement. The brief contains a lot of sound advice on the role of evaluations in performance pay--though it doesn't mention the fact that many collective bargaining agreements don't permit veterans teachers to be evaluated any more frequently than every five years--tying the hands of a lot of districts that are exploring pay reforms.

Finally, the Feds just announced today that they will begin handing out money for the first-ever federal performance pay program.