On another post, Anonymous wrote:
"Great article in the New York Times that should call into question an awful lot of the Pittsburgh Broad/Gates design:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/education/18rand.html?_r=2
("New York City Abandons Teacher Bonus Program")
A New York City program that distributed $56 million in performance bonuses to teachers and other school staff members over the last three years will be permanently discontinued, the city Department of Education said on Sunday.
The decision was made in light of a study that found the bonuses had no positive effect on either student performance or teachers’ attitudes toward their jobs.
The department had already suspended the bonus program in January amid tightening budgets and concerns about its effectiveness.
The study, commissioned by the city, is to be published Monday by the RAND Corporation, the public policy research institution. It compared the performance of the approximately 200 city schools that participated in the bonus program with that of a control group of schools."
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6 comments:
So what performance bonus sytem for PPS teachers is actually in place for the upcoming school year?
There are several;but, what makes you think anyone will put those in jeopardy by reporting them here?
I was a strong supporter of paying $10,000 more for teachers to go to our more challenging school(ALA's). The District thought we could attract better more experienced teachers to those schools. We found out unequivocally it does not work. I have no doubt the same thing goes for bonuses to Principals. When you think about it it makes perfect sense--- "I am going not going to work as hard because I now won't get a bonus?"
Either you give your best to your students or you do not.
Walking away from our Broad/Gates/TIF plans was one of the steps proposed in the very detailed WAA 40 point action plan for the district's long term fiscal health.
Although grants may provide some of the seed money and initial bonus funds, the district will absorb increasing obligations over time.
The fact that this study was prepared by RAND puts PPS in an interesting position, since RAND was instrumental in designing the initial PPS administrative bonus models.
As it is now, some sports coaching slots are treated as a bonus. Take over the golf team (but I do not mean to pick on just golf) and hide out and take home a couple of extra grand.
Different sports at different buildings aretreated in different light, of course. And, this is not to say it happens mt of the time -- but that it has happened.
There may be other building duties more fluid in the staffing structure that can get to be given, some with lots of work and some with little.
I wish there was more evaluation and more semester work / duties that were fluid in schools as needed and less as per tradition, pecking order, and lack of care from top administration.
Flexibility is good.
So, if 50 9th grade girls all come out for the girls varsity soccer team, after watching Hope Solo and her mates this year, then it would be wonderful to have 2 new 9th grade teams, with paid coach.
That flexibility is absent for sure.
Most people don't know that for teachers, a lot of these performance pay positions mean entering within a window. That is, your pay can be as low as perhaps $70K OR include pay an average teacher would make.
Here's the kicker: it all depends on the principal. And that's a dangerous proposition to me.
Mark, I agree with you but hasn't it always been that way. I remember hearing about two high school programs in which coaches--who were paraprofessionals--would go around the school on game days looking for players and passing out uniforms.
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