Chancellor Joel I. Klein and United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten announced today that 98% of eligible schools have decided to participate in the second year of New York City’s school-wide performance bonus program. Of the 201 high-needs schools that were invited to participate, 197 elected to do so through a vote of school staff represented by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and with the principal’s agreement. On average, 89% of UFT staff members at these schools voted to participate in the program again. At 42 schools, the vote in favor of participation was unanimous. Educators at the 197 schools, which are located throughout the City and serve students at every grade-level, will receive monetary bonuses if their schools meet performance targets based on Progress Report scores. In the first year of the program, educators at 124 of the participating schools, or 62%, earned more than $20 million in bonuses for meeting performance targets.
“I’m delighted that the overwhelming majority of schools—and the overwhelming majority of our UFT staff members at these schools—who were invited to participate in the second year of this groundbreaking program have once again decided to take part,” Chancellor Klein said. “Teachers across the city have told us how gratified they were to be recognized for the success of their collaborative focus on student achievement and their hard work. The biggest winners, though, were the students in these high-needs schools, who received the instruction and support they needed to reach new levels of performance. This is a program that everyone who supports New York City public schools should endorse—it improves our schools, honors the work of our teachers and other UFT staff, and elevates student learning.”
“The Mayor and the Chancellor wanted to test whether money paid in this form could increase student achievement. We at the union wanted to see whether our instincts would prove correct that collaboration and strong professional support are indispensable to increasing student achievement,” UFT President Weingarten said. “Both of our bets paid off: Student achievement already has improved so significantly in 124 of those schools that their staffs are getting bonuses. Even more promising is the fact that teachers at so many schools eligible to participate in this program have voted to do so again. These results show that if an innovation is collaborative and fair, teachers will embrace it.”
Like last year, each school that opted into the program for the current year must select a four-member “compensation committee” comprised of the school principal, a designee of the principal, and two UFT designees elected by the UFT membership at each participating school. The compensation committee will decide in the spring, by consensus, how to distribute the funds among teachers and other UFT-represented employees at the school. Schools meeting performance targets will receive a bonus pool equivalent to $3,000 per full-time UFT member at the school. Schools that meet at least 75% of performance targets will receive a bonus pool equal to $1,500 per full-time UFT member. The compensation committee may decide to distribute the funds evenly to all UFT members, or it can differentiate bonuses by job title or based on individual contribution to the school’s gains. Schools will learn whether they have met their performance targets in the fall of 2009.
Last month, the schools that took part in the first year of the school-wide performance program were invited to participate for a second year. Schools originally invited to participate were randomly selected from a group of high-need schools based on the factors used in creating Progress Report peer groups: average proficiency ratings on 4th-grade State English Language Arts and Math exams for middle schools; 8th-grade exams for high schools; poverty rates, student demographic characteristics, and percentage of English Language Learners and Special Education students for elementary schools. Of the 205 schools that participated in the first year of the program, four schools were phased out, at least three schools have elected not to take part in the second year of the program, and one school’s vote remains to be decided.
The school-wide performance bonus program will be publicly funded this year. In its first year, the program was largely supported with private dollars raised by The Fund for Public Schools.
To view the list of schools participating in the school-wide performance bonus program in the 2008-2009, click here.