I can feel the momentum shifting. It’s not the big ‘mo when the team that’s down big, makes a quick and starling comeback, but it is a change.
For the longest time we have heard and read little about the benefits of performance pay. In fact we usually hear the union’s and many teachers’ position that it is divisive in an effort that needs to be cooperative. It was this point that led to the ridicule on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me that I posted last Friday.
The show’s host Peter Sagal said the BTU opposed bonuses for AP teachers because it would make the bad teachers feel bad.
Other criticism has been that evaluations are subjective and administrators play favorites, test scores are influenced by more than the current teacher, some students are more needy than others, and that the test themselves don’t really measure what’s been taught.

Today’s news has the Prince George County school system, Maryland’s second largest touting its pilot program that has $1.1 million in Federal funds for performance bonuses.

The program offered bonuses of up to $10,000 for teachers, $11,500 for assistant principals and $12,000 for principals. The maximum bonus would be a large pay bump for a teacher with a starting salary of about $45,000.
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Not all teachers qualify for every piece of the bonus pie. Half of the bonus money is tied to scores on state tests: As much as $2,500 is awarded when the school meets test-score targets, and as much as $2,500 for improving a given class's scores. The other half is granted for teaching in hard-to-staff subjects ($1,500), doing well on an evaluation of classroom skills (as much as $1,500), and engaging in professional development and activities outside the classroom (as much as $2,000).

What I liked about today’s article was the positive comments from the participants, even the union’s.

The Prince George's program is unusual because it has the backing of the Prince George's County Educators' Association, the union that represents teachers.
Donald Briscoe, president of the teachers union, said he had not heard many complaints about the size of the bonuses or how they have been administered. "This office has not heard from many of those teachers, in a negative way, at all," Briscoe said. "As a matter of fact, I can't think of one."

Elana Posner, a social studies teacher at Nicholas Orem Middle School in Hyattsville, said she was given about $1,500 in bonus money.
"From my standpoint, I think it's a great idea," she said. "It's an even playing field. It's an incentive for what you do, and you are getting paid for it. . . . I just didn't see it hinder anybody. We get observed anyway, and I didn't see it bring anybody down."

"I think that the program, it is definitely valid," said Denise Lynch, principal of Bradbury Heights Elementary School in Capitol Heights. "It is a lot of work, yes, but it produces an awful lot from the teacher perspective as well as the administrative perspective. . . . What it does, is it gives us a framework for really having in-depth discussion for the instruction that is taking place and how teachers are improving their strategies and their approach, and how administrators can help them improve their craft."

This positive spin will no doubt change the discussion and make it easier for school districts and unions to accept “pay for performance” aspects of the Race to the Top applications.