86% of Schools Participating In Performance-Pay Project

By ELIZABETH GREEN, Staff Reporter of the Sun | December 19, 2007

Teachers at 33 schools are opting out of a new performance-pay project that could make them eligible for up to thousands of dollars in bonuses if their students show progress this year.

The program rewards schools with a lump sum of $1,500 a teacher if they meet certain progress goals. A small committee of teachers and administrators will then decide how the money is divvied up. About 15% of city schools were invited to participate, but teachers voted at each school to decide whether they would do so.

In a resounding backing of the project, more than 200 schools will participate, or 86% of those offered the chance.

The number of schools participating was given a boost with a second round of invitations, extended after a group of schools first offered invitations voted to opt out.

The city has already gotten commitments of $15 million in privately donated money to finance the project, which is expected to cost $20 million this year. The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the Robertson Foundation, and the Partnership for New York City are donating the money.

Only schools judged as "high-need" were eligible for the performance pay, and only members of the United Federation of Teachers are eligible to receive it.

The program is a partnership between Mayor Bloomberg and the UFT president, Randi Weingarten, and both leaders have framed their cooperation as a remarkable victory for an issue that usually divides teachers and school officials.

The program is unlike other performance-pay projects in that there is no central mandate for how the money will be distributed once it gets to a school. Thus, like programs in Florida and Texas, money could be distributed based on which teacher shows the most growth — but it could also be split evenly between all UFT members.

The so-called compensation committees at each school that will decide how the money is doled out are composed of two teachers; the principal, and an appointee of the principal's choosing. The committees are being formed now.