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The full impact of the city’s short-lived experiment in teacher performance pay could still be felt.

The Department of Education confirmed today that it has ended a three-year-old school-wide bonus program that was called “transcendant” when it was introduced. The decision, spurred by a RAND Corporation report that was commissioned by the Department of Education’s private fundraising wing, follows a previous study that found no performance boost for participating schools. We reported in March that the city had quietly suspended the bonus program.

(Read the complete RAND report.)

The city will save money this year by not disbursing the bonuses, which it says cost $56 million over the life of the initiative. (The previous report, which the city did not commission, put the costs even higher, at $75 million.)

But the long-term effect could come from a pension sweetener introduced to get the teachers union on board with the controversial program. Then-UFT President Randi Weingarten hinged her support for the bonus program on a change in the law that would allow teachers to retire early, starting at 55 instead of 62, without taking a hit to their pensions. (more…)

Reflecting their satisfaction with a controversial initiative, teachers in virtually every school that participated in the first year of a school-wide performance bonus program voted to participate again this year, the Department of Education announced today. (Download the full list of schools.)

When it was first announced last year, the bonus program was received with skepticism by some who saw the union’s participation as a first step toward true merit pay. Teachers unions have traditionally opposed the idea of paying teachers differently depending on their students’ performance. The DOE’s program, in contrast, awards participating schools that meet their “performance targets” a shared pot of money that school personnel can decide how to distribute

With 89% of teachers voting to keep their schools in the bonus program, it’s clear that teachers at participating schools were happy with the program’s first year. But more important is whether the program benefitted students. On that question, the numbers are less clear. (more…)