Deal on Teacher Merit Pay May Sway National Debate
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
In a breakthrough likely to shift a fierce national debate over how teachers should be paid, Mayor Bloomberg and the city teachers union are moving forward with a plan to base salaries on student performance.
The plan is a major victory for Mr. Bloomberg, who made performance-based pay a top priority when he took over the public schools in 2002.
The creative deal that seems to have satisfied both sides shatters a long-standing stalemate on one of the most divisive issues in education. Pleasing the union, the deal does not force teachers into a direct battle over scores for dollars; the city will hand out $20 million a year in bonus money to schools, not to individual teachers, and test scores will not be the only measure of growth. Attendance rates and teacher surveys are also likely to play a role.
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