L’Independent School District (ISD) di Dallas ha avviato un progetto consistente in importanti aumenti salariali agli insegnanti valutati come migliori per lavorare nelle scuole più problematiche.

Uno studio del NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research) ha misurato gli effetti del programma, riportando consistenti miglioramenti e la perdita degli stessi quando i premi salariali venivano dismessi.

The Accelerating Campus Excellence (ACE) program offers salary supplements to educators with records of high performance who are willing to work in the most educationally disadvantaged schools. We document that ACE resulted in immediate and sustained increases in student achievement, providing strong evidence that the multi-measure evaluation system identifies effective educators who foster the development of cognitive skills. The improvements at ACE schools were dramatic, bringing average achievement in the previously lowest performing schools close to the district average. When ACE stipends are largely eliminated, a substantial fraction of highly effective teachers leaves, and test scores fall.