City, Teachers Agree on Merit Pay

Public school teachers will get performance-based bonuses as early as next summer under an agreement announced today between the city and the United Federation of Teachers.

Teachers at two hundred of the city's lowest-performing schools will be eligible for the bonuses, which will be doled out to schools that show improvement on a variety of measures including standardized test scores.

The agreement hinges on city leaders' ability to drive a reworked pension plan for teachers through a gridlocked legislature in Albany. UFT president Randi Weingarten said the salary agreement would not go forward unless the state passes the pension agreement — which reduces penalties for quitting early during a teacher's career.