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Bonus pay: Who's in? Who's out?
10:07 AM Tue, Feb 05, 2008 | Permalink
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The teacher groups tried hard to dissuade their members from participating. The district spun hard in the opposite direction, putting together a slick DVD promotion, calling teachers at home to urge them to join and sending out e-mail reminders of the deadline. So, how many joined? Click the jump to find out. Accepted: 4,502 (69 percent) A few days prior to the deadline, one teacher group reported to me that the numbers were thus: So there was obviously a big push in the final days to get folks signed up. Now, I have no idea why the number of teachers eligible for the bonuses grew by about 2,000, so I've asked the district for a clarification on that. I'm guessing that the latest numbers must include non-teachers, while the numbers given to the teacher groups contained only teachers. But that's just a guess. So, who won? The district by recruiting 70 percent? Or the teacher groups for keeping 30 percent out? |
The deadline for teachers to enlist in the Dallas ISD's |
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Comments
Posted by Kent Fischer @ 10:46 AM Tue, Feb 05, 2008
DISD administrator Carlos Tapia responds to my query on why the number of eligible employees shot up by 2,000. It's as I suspected. I've asked for the numbers to be broken down further, by teacher vs. support staff. I'll post them when/if I get them.
Here's Mr. Tapia's response to my initial request:
"The last report included all employees, Professional (4692) and Support (1843), and the first report that you are referring to was only for Professional employees. Also, there are employees that work full time at the school but are paid through grant funding sources not directly allocated to the school and in Oracle show under other departments and not the specific school. The first reports were only showing ee's that in Oracle show the specific school assignment and these employees were being confirmed by the Principals as working at their schools."
Posted by A Concerned Teacher @ 12:28 PM Tue, Feb 05, 2008
What will be interesting to see is how teachers who opted in are handled if their CEI's for next year are not good. Also, what ought to be studied beginning right now is how much time these teachers spend on teaching to the test in class, after school and on Saturdays. I am not going to criticize teachers for opting in; they have that right. But this is the first step on a slippery slope toward having teacher salaries and job security tied to test scores. And for those of you who did opt in, do you know which students will be used to calculate your CEI? Are you 100% sure you know what they have to score on the test in order for you to have "added value"? How will you get these children to score that magic number and not leave the other children behind?
Posted by Brenda Corry @ 4:03 PM Tue, Feb 05, 2008
I don't think that office personnel or building personnel should receive bonuses for what the teachers do---They do not have CEI's, so they are not "under the gun" or held responsible if the students fail the TAKS.
It was quite easy for them to "opt-in" because they had no risk, no problem. As for the teachers, there is no guarantee they will even see a dime.
Posted by dallasisdmom @ 9:09 PM Tue, Feb 05, 2008
How do building personnel qualify for the bonus if non-core teachers do not?
Posted by Kent Fischer @ 1:09 PM Wed, Feb 06, 2008
Good question, Mom. The answer is fairly simple: there are actually two bonus programs. One (the big one with the most money at stake) is open only to the core subject teachers at the 59 pilot schools. Those bonuses range up to $8,000 and are based on the achievement of the teacher's individual students. This is the bonus plan that teachers had to "opt-in" to.
The second program is open to everyone who works at the school. Those bonuses range up to $2,000 and are based on the aggregate success of the school's students on several tests and other factors.
I've asked the district to provide for me the enrollment numbers for each bonus program, so we can get a better picture of how many core teachers decided to participate. I'll post those numbers when I get them.
Posted by DISD Insider @ 10:33 AM Thu, Feb 07, 2008
Kent you are mostly correct. There is only 1 bonus program which has 2 parts. One part is the school-level award and the other is the classroom-level award. When employees opt into the program (with support they are automatically in), they are joining 1 program, but are only eligible for the parts that apply to them. There is no separate opt-in for the school-level and classroom-level program, but you are right in that it would be beneficial to see the opt-in status of support vs professional and also by position.
Now as far as who is eligible for the classroom-level award, it is available to teachers that receive a CEI. You mention that it is available to "only core teachers" but that is not entirely accurate. Most core teachers receive a CEI, but not all. Plus some subjects have students take an ACP test (end of semester test for secondary courses) and many of those courses are not considered "core", yet they do receive a CEI.
One last thing, the comment someone made about building personnel receiving money for what teachers do is not entirely correct. Those awards are based on school-level achievement but also takes into consideration other factors such as graduation rate, attendance rate, etc.. The point being, everyone on a campus, including support are having an impact on the students they interact with on a daily basis and that in many ways effects student achievement. Plus the school-level award for support staff is half of what the school-level award is for teachers and professional employees so there was an effect to make it a fair system.