Performance bonuses proposed for teachers at struggling high schools
As part of the reform plan for three underperforming HISD high schools, Dr. Saavedra has proposed paying performance bonuses to teachers who agree to work at the schools:
On Thursday, [Dr. Saavedra] will ask the Houston Independent School District Board of Trustees to approve his plan to give teachers at those schools yearly bonuses of up to $3,000 if their students do better on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. Teachers could earn bonuses based on campuswide improvements and gains posted in their individual classrooms.
"We need to do whatever it takes to get the best teachers into those schools to start working," Saavedra said in a written statement.
San Francisco, of all places, employs a similar idea:
The San Francisco Unified School District already offers modest financial incentives to attract teachers to shortage areas such as mathematics, science and special education, to teach in low-performing schools, and to reward teachers who achieve advanced national certification.
Jason Spencer's story (it's a good one) also describes how Chattanooga and Denver are handling the issue of getting good teachers into lower-performing schools.
In the real world, of course, performance bonuses and merit pay are common. But doing it in public schools scares the bejeebers out of teachers unions, as evidenced by Gayle Fallon's disparaging reaction:
The leader of Houston's largest teachers union called the proposal a desperation move by administrators who didn't realize how difficult replacing the teachers would be.
"They backed themselves into a corner on staffing and they don't know how to fix it," said Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers. She said she doubts Saavedra's offer will lure many good teachers out of their current jobs and into the struggling schools. "I will bet the superintendent lunch, at the restaurant of his choice, that he opens the year with primarily first-year teachers or vacant positions."
What a little ray of sunshine she is. You can really tell she is interested in a quality education for HISD's students.
Here's Sedosi Alhambra:
Note to Gayle Fallon: Shut up. Stop being part of the problem and contribute to the solution. If you can't do that, then just be quiet, because keeping things "status quo" isn't working.
Good luck to Dr. Saavedra as he attempts to turn around a school district that's been ruined by years of mis-management, a bloated beuaracrecy, and a teacher's union that has forgotten that the word "teach" is in their job description.
Amen.
When Fallon has to buy lunch for Dr. Saavedra, do you think her son will tag along?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/08/05 01:36 PM | Print |
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