Performance pay, incentive programs moving into phase two
The DOE proudly announced earlier this week that 86 percent of the schools given the option of accepting performance pay this year chose to. Thirty-four eligible schools chose not to participate. (The percentage would have been slightly lower had the DOE not included the additional schools it apparently solicited once it became clear that a chunk of schools would abstain from the program.)
By the end of the day tomorrow, each of the schools will have to decide, by committee, whether their merit pay will be shared equally among all teachers or given in varying amounts to teachers who especially deserve it. I'm curious whether any schools will choose this latter option, and if they do, whether their choice will reflect an honest attempt to see the effect of merit pay or cronyism, as Norm Scott at EdNotes Online speculates will happen.
Interestingly, a slightly higher percentage of "A" and "D" schools than "B" and "C" schools given the option to participate chose not to. But of the 19 schools with F's on their progress reports, not a single one opted out of the performance pay pilot. I'm not sure what, if anything, to make of this -- I'm open to suggestions.
In other incentives news, we also learned this week that the city has distributed $740,000 so far through the Opportunity NYC program, although we don't know how much money was distributed because of kids' achievements in school.
2 comments:
hi philissa,
here's one idea about the F schools: there was a clause in the memorandum of understanding stating that willingness to participate in the program would be considered in school closing decisions. Given the two options - closing or performance pay - I'm not surprised that more F schools picked performance pay.
Interesting. I heard that this was the case, but didn't realize that the DOE put this in print. Doesn't seem right, does it?
At least a couple of schools joined up but are still being closed. I guess their real estate was too valuable?
Post a Comment