An overwhelming majority of public-school teachers have voted to participate in a controversial plan to pay them bonuses based on schoolwide gains in student performance.
Of the high-needs schools tapped for the program, 205 said yes to accepting $3,000 per United Federation of Teachers member if targets for student improvement are met, largely based on state-test scores.
Those meeting at least 75 percent of goals on their progress reports – which were assigned to each school along with an A through F letter grade for the first time this year – will get $1,500 per UFT member.
Another 33 schools said no to the plan. Some fear that such bonuses place too much emphasis on testing, while others are concerned that it might open the door to a merit pay system.
Now the schools will have to decide how the money will be divided. The plan calls for each school to create a “compensation committee” made up of a principal, his or her designee and two UFT reps.
But how the committee will hand out the money is up for debate. Some want the money spread out equally to all teachers. Others want the bulk of the money to be given to the most deserving teachers.
In one unusual case, MS 218 Principal June Barnett vetoed her school’s participation in the program because she believed the bonuses should be given to teachers based on merit, according to Joseph D’Urso, the school’s UFT chapter leader.
But teachers at the school, who voted overwhelmingly in favor of the plan, intended for the money to be split evenly among them.
If committees don’t agree how to divide the money, schools forfeit their bonuses, according to the Department of Education.
“I think the principal’s belief here was that we would not come to that agreement, so she stopped it right then and there,” said D’Urso. “It was a very unpopular decision.”
A phone call and e-mail to Barnett were not answered.
Concerns about distributing the bonuses – in this case on the part of teachers – also derailed participation at PS 316 in Brooklyn by just two votes, according to UFT chapter leader Damali Gray.
She said some teachers were also worried that the bonuses would result in workday give-backs, such as having to start the school day earlier.
State test scores, poverty rates and student demographics were among the factors used to determine which schools were eligible.