Study shows merit pay works... or does it?

A new study coming out will show that merit pay improves student performance.

Color me skeptical. But I'm willing to listen. The quote from one of the study's authors sounds promising:

"We can't say, 'Do this; or this is the right way to do it,'" he said. "However, the preponderance of evidence, when you look at a variety of sources, including the limited number of evaluations and the evidence we have on the variation of teacher effectiveness, suggests that it (merit pay) really is something school districts should be exploring or piloting. Every one of the evaluations has been virtually positive. They all suggest there's a positive response in terms of outcome measures -- including test scores."

It will be interesting to see the study in more detail. It's interesting to note, by way of contrst, that I just read about a study that showed that financial incentives didn't help improve teacher attendance. So if both studies are correct, financial rewards can help improve student achievement but not teacher attendance. Sounds paradoxical, to say the least.