The Seattle Times reported last week that when Seattle superintendent candidate Steven Adamowski led the Cincinnati schools:
Under his direction, the district became the first in the state to run charter schools, and one of the first in the country to push a pay-for-performance system. The district was taken off the state's academic watch list when test scores and graduation rates jumped, turning critical business leaders into fans.Silly me, I concluded from the above (and blogged) that Adamowski actually implemented a pay-for-performance system. He did not. He merely pushed it. The P-I reports today that
Adamowski clashed with unions during his tenure as superintendent in Cincinnati, where his proposal to link teacher pay to performance was trounced by 96 percent of teachers in a vote two years ago.I happen to think that teachers should be treated more like other educated professionals, such as doctors, lawyers and engineers, and likewise held accountable and compensated for performance. It's something of a sad reflection on the teaching profession that so many would opt for enforced mediocrity. But performance pay should at least be voluntary. Those who choose to do a better job than their colleagues deserve to be rewarded. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 07, 2003 11:34 AM
EXACTLY
Using ingenuity is the key like Ovits did with Letterman's contract in Late Shift, one of my favorite movies.
We can't force teachers to accept performance judged pay and give up tenure.
However, what you could do is say this is what the salary is X.
And for those teachers who are willing to submit to standards and perform extra services we will pay additional compensation.
Judging is a near impossible task caught up in bureacracy again, but its a start. Also teachers in NY who go for additional classes and credits get more money per credit.
Posted by: Mike on October 7, 2003 12:48 PM