After discussing the controversies surrounding attempts at "external" performance contracting--agreements negotiated between local educational authorities and private educational firms--this document describes five "local" programs--agreements negotiated between a local educational authority and its own teachers--involving nine school districts. The programs are the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) "incentive-only" teacher performance contracts in Mesa (Arizona) and Stockton (California); the U.S. Office of Education (USOE) experiments in teacher and parent/teacher incentive contracts in Cincinnati (Ohio), Jacksonville (Florida), San Antonio (Texas), and Oakland (California); and locally devised teacher performance contract programs in Keokuk (Iowa), Menominee (Michigan), and Cherry Creek (Colorado). The evaluations of the programs summarized here have come to different conclusions. On the basis of the limited research available to date, it would appear that locally devised programs of this type have been more successful than the experimental programs established by OEO and USOE. A more conclusive assessment must await the results of further carefully designed and evaluated research. (Author/IRT)