Joe Williams' Blog
October 17, 2007
Performance Pay Hits NYC
Big news in Gotham City today as Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Chancellor Joel Klein, and United Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten announced a massive school-based bonus pay for performance plan. Early NY Times coverage is here.
It is potentially the largest performance-based pay scheme anywhere. It will be privately-funded (Eli Broad, Julian Robertson, Partnership for NYC) and principals/teachers will have to vote on whether to participate. Seriously, they are required to vote on whether or not they want the extra cash if their school improves.
The money (the equivalent of $3,000 per teacher) is disbursed to the school, where a compensation committee at the school decides how much everyone actually gets. (I previously worried about the ability of the central bureaucracy to handle merit pay when it often seems to have trouble handling lock-step pay, so I like the decentralized approach and the fact that members of the team play such a major role in deciding how it gets spread.)
The bonuses are on top of negotiated pay scales (which have increased more than 40% since Bloomberg became mayor.)
Perhaps more important than the details is the huge breakthrough today's announcement represents in terms of making quality and results more relevant in the nation's largest school system.
Kudos to Bloomberg, Klein, Weingarten and the funders.
Posted by Joe Williams on October 17, 2007 4:38 PM
Another Dem Banished For Supporting Charter Schools?
Let's be blunt: If the Democratic Party was a place where people felt like they could talk openly about finding new ways to solve old K-12 education problems, I wouldn't be posting on this blog and you wouldn't be reading it.
We all know what happens in certain quarters of the party when you even suggest there is a problem in public education. You get those funny looks. You're accused of being against the men and women who work in schools. You're a privatizing profiteer who supports risky schemes blah, blah, blah. Most of the time enough noise gets created that you don't even get to talk about what the education system is doing (or not doing, as is often the case) for the children of other working men and women or for the public at large, the future of the democracy, etc.
It doesn't happen as much as it used to, but we all know that it happens.
It usually plays out below the radar screen. The party leaders say they support you but there have been, ahem, complaints from some special interests about your positions. Just don't talk about things like charter schools and you'll be fine. Don't rock the boat and you have a home and a career in the Democratic Party.
It seldom gets put in writing. But this time it did.
The story that is playing out in Columbus, Ohio, is a reminder of just how far our party has wandered from its role of sticking up for the little guy. Here's the basic storyline: The Franklin County Democrats, which had previously endorsed Stephanie Groce (a popular public school parent) for the Columbus School Board voted this week to withdraw its support just a few weeks before the election, in part because of her support for a KIPP charter school that will open in Columbus in 2008.
Here's how William Anthony Jr., chair of the county party, put it in a letter:
Continue reading "Another Dem Banished For Supporting Charter Schools?"....
Posted by Joe Williams on October 17, 2007 10:30 AM
October 15, 2007
Bouncing Off The Walls In NYC
So the issue of the infamous "rubber rooms" is now getting all this attention, especially now as the United Federation of Teachers prepares to submit a new plan to do something about the conditions faced by the 700 teachers the city has decided it would rather pay to specifically NOT teach kids.
The teachers union is under fire from some of its own members for not providing these non-teaching teachers with legal protections, which seems sort of odd since it it the union's sheer power at the bargaining table which has seen to it that these 700 teachers continue to receive paychecks so long as they not get within an arm's length of children.
The union is threatening to go to court over the issue, which seems likely to get even more people talking about either (1) How thoroughly screwed up the NYC public schools are, whether it is management's fault or labor's fault or both or whatever, or (2) Why in God's name NYC puts up with a system where we have to pay out tens of millions of dollars a year in bribes to teachers who don't teach.
Shouldn't public education be better than this, or is this the best we can hope for? This might have been one of those issues that Gov. Spitzer and the Legislature could have insisted upon when it recently opened up its wallet in the histroric Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit. They had the leverage to insist that Randi Weingarten and Mayor Bloomberg go in their own rubber room and hammer out a contract witch makes sure that all kids are taught by an excellent teacher and that state dollars for teachers go into the bank accounts of teachers who are getting the job done (or at least ones who are teaching.)
Great work Albany!
NOTE TO Gov. Spitzer: There's still time to lead on this one. You got it in you?
Posted by Joe Williams on October 15, 2007 7:43 AM
October 12, 2007
Should Parents Care About A High School's Grad Rate?
You bet. On EdWize, Leo Casey makes an outstanding point about how hard it is to find a NYC high school's graduation rate on the new school system website. And if you continue to the jump, he explains the Rube Goldberg-like steps a person has to go through just to find that basic stat.
Posted by Joe Williams on October 12, 2007 10:32 AM
October 11, 2007
Welcome Visitors, Make Yourself At Home
We've had a lot of new visitors coming through the site in the last week. We started buying Google ad words (if I do a blog testimonial can we get a discount?) and it has brought a bunch of people our way who wouldn't normally be here. Also, we got two or three people who clicked through after Mike Klonsky called me a "nasty little Republicrat twit" the other day. (Mike was bitching and moaning that I blogged about this seemingly successful school turn-around.)
Good times.
So thanks all for visiting. Please make sure you sign-on to our online petition and if you can spare to part with a couple of benjamins, support our little political action committee.
Posted by Joe Williams on October 11, 2007 10:08 AM
Can Any Florida Readers Help This Mom?
Drop me an email if you can and I'll put you in touch with her. joewilliams-at-dfer.org.
The woman writes:
I have been trying to get Destiney tested since last school year. Her grades are poor.She has been to summer school twice, 21st century since first grade. She never passes the fcat.Time is running out for her.Fcat will be here soon and she will not pass it! So she will have to repeat the 5th grade.I was told last year they would try to test her over the summer. Nope Glennallen is dragging their feet again. She trys as hard as she can, but what is the school doing for her? Not much of anything, I would like some answers on why this school does not care enough about there students and WHY my child has Not been tested. I think someone will call and say im sorry and make excuses why they didn't have time and there are a lot of kids that need to be tested or maybe the paper work was lost AGAIN .I will hold this school responsible for not teaching my daughter in the way she needs to be taught.I am telling you she will fail the fcat. HELP HER!!!!!If needed i will forward this letter to anyone that will read it including the school board. I am so sick and tired of this SCHOOL NEGLETING HER.
Posted by Joe Williams on October 11, 2007 9:49 AM
Mike Piscal Lays Down A Challenge
LA's Mike Piscal, last seen on this blog over the summer after we literally bumped into the guy who supposedly evented the wave at sporting events, is blogging again over at Huffington Post, describing the ambitious plans to grow the ICEF network of charter schools in South Los Angeles.
Once it reaches scale, close to one our of every three kids in the area will be able to attend a school that is part of the ICEF Corridor, and they will be able to see more than 2,000 students a year to graduation.
Writes Piscal:
Los Angeles will eventually benefit from the thousands of well-prepared students who will go on to college, graduate, and return to the community set to bring with them economic development and hope. The dilemma that remains is whether the nearby public schools serving the remaining two-thirds of South Los Angeles's students will respond and help us end this crisis once-and-for-all.
Posted by Joe Williams on October 11, 2007 8:50 AM
