How much do recruitment incentives work to attract and retain smart people in the classroom? That's the question explored in a new paper on California's $20,000 incentive, called the Governor's Teaching Fellowship, designed to get academically talented grads to teach in the state's neediest schools and keep them there for four years. Teachers who do not serve out their commitment must repay the state $5,000 for each unfulfilled year.

Although short lived (it lasted only two years before it fell victim to funding cuts), the program did appear to be successful at attracting high quality applicants. Teachers who attended one of the more selective University of California institutions were significantly more likely to receive the fellowship than candidates who graduated from less selective institutions. Secondly, teachers with higher composite licensure scores were more likely to receive the award, even though licensure test scores were not part of the selection criteria.

Not only did the program attract promising teachers, but it increased the likelihood that these teachers would teach in the neediest schools. For every seven fellowship recipients who began working in a low-performing school, two would not have done so in the absence of the incentive. That meant 200 teachers in low-performing schools who otherwise would not have been there.

The retention rate for these teachers seemed decent enough--about 75 percent of entrants fulfilled their four-year commitment--but that rate is actually not any better than other teachers in comparable schools. Unfortunately data are not available on teacher retention after the four-year commitment ended.

Like Teach For America, the fellowship program seems to have made teaching in poor performing schools more attractive. But the fellowship got three relatively productive years out of its cohort compared to only one for TFA--if you write off the first year when no teacher adds much value. Perhaps TFA should consider retention bonuses to gets its most effective teachers to stay for a third, fourth or fifth year. Surely there is a foundation out there willing to help with that investment. The returns on student achievement--and on what TFA accomplishes in the classroom--would be worth it.