Teachers, Principals To Get $8.3M in Bonuses; Tied to Student Improvements

More than 2,400 high school educators will receive bonuses totaling $8.3 million for improving student achievement in their schools, the Department of Education announced Nov. 14.

JOEL I. KLEIN: Money well spent.

Twenty-two hundred members of the United Federation of Teachers whose 33 high-need schools participated in the school-wide bonus program are getting bonuses totaling $6.5 million. The schools that achieved Progress Report targets get the bonuses, in a pilot scheme devised by the DOE and UFT in October 2007 to explore methods of merit pay. In all, 85 percent of schools participating in the program met targets and were awarded bonuses.

Principals to Reap Rewards

Additionally, under a different setup, Principals and Assistant Principals at 58 high schools qualified for bonuses of up to $25,000, with a total payout of $1.3 million, for achieving scores in the top 20 percent of Progress Reports citywide. Another 28 Principals and Assistant Principals will receive bonuses totalling nearly $400,000 through the school-wide bonus program.

"I am enormously proud to be able to recognize educators who are improving outcomes for students, especially those in our highest-need schools," Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein said. "Thanks to their commitment and effective collaboration, more students than ever before are on track to graduate on time. The performance pay program allows us to reward these educators for their outstanding work in raising student achievement."

UFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement that the bonus program "is all about promoting collaboration among educators to benefit students, and the results we're seeing show that it clearly is working." She added that the program "encourages Principals to listen to the school-based educators and provide, to the extent possible in this tight fiscal time, the support and conditions necessary to attain that end."

Bonus Amounts May Vary

Under the program, each UFT-represented staff member qualifies for a $3,000 bonus at any school meeting Progress Report targets, although individuals may get more or less than that amount. A school meeting at least 75 percent of its targets gets a $1,500 bonus per UFT staff member.

Bonuses are then distributed among staff according to the decisions of each school's "compensation committee," consisting of the school's Principal, a designee of the Principal, and two UFT representatives chosen by the school's UFT membership. Some schools opt to distribute the bonuses equally, while others allocate by position or individual contribution.

The separate bonuses for Principals come from the DOE's 2007 contract with the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, which aligned the bonus system for Principals and Assistant Principals with the DOE's school accountability measurements.