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‘HISTORIC’ MERIT PAY FOR TEACHERS

In a move being hailed as a “historic and unique” agreement on the controversial issue of merit pay, teachers at 200 high-need schools would earn an average of $3,000 in bonus pay if their schools raise student achievement significantly this year.

Improvements will be measured by components of the school’s annual city Progress Report, or report card, which this year, for the first time, will assign A through F grades to schools based largely on students’ performance and progress on standardized state math and reading tests, city and education officials said.

The first such report cards will be issued within weeks, and will be compared to next year’s reports to determine which schools earn the bonus pay.

The city unsuccessfully piloted a teacher and principal pay-for-performance initiative in the late 1990s in two districts in Brooklyn.

Each successful school will collect $3,000 per teacher, but a committee at each one – comprising an administrator, a teacher designee and two teachers – will decide how much particular teachers should get. High-need schools include those with low-performing, high-poverty students, or those with high numbers of English-language learners and special-education students.

The money will be forfeited if the committee can’t come to a consensus.

“This agreement underscores how rewarding positive performance is helping infuse our schools with a culture that stresses results and collaboration,” said Mayor Bloomberg, who was joined by Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, United Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten and city officials in making the announcement.

“We’ve creatively bridged what has long been a divisive issue,” Bloomberg said.

That bridge was created in part by making payments based on school, rather individual teacher, performance – an idea that Weingarten has long opposed.

“I don’t consider it the individual, divisive merit-pay plan that I have railed against,” she said. “I consider this a school-wide bonus.”

She said the program would foster collaboration and teamwork among teachers at each school, while Bloomberg and Klein said it would provide incentive for the best teachers to work in the neediest schools.

The 200 schools will be selected for the $20 million, privately funded initiative within weeks, but they must individually opt in, with the principal and 55 percent of teachers approving.

Nearly the half the money has been raised, officials said, and the program is expected to double next year using public funds.

Proponents of merit pay for teachers suggested yesterday that the program was a step in the right direction, but that it didn’t go quite far enough.

“I think this is a good first start, but you typically would want to have a set of both individual and group rewards, and this is just group rewards,” said Eric Hanushek, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

“The concern is that the union wouldn’t allow it to be divided up according to who contributed the most toward student performance.”

The initiative is also tied to two teacher pension agreements that have been sought by the union, one of which requires approval by the state Legislature and governor.

yoav.gonen@nypost.com