A teacher's story: Why the DC Impact system Bloomberg wants NYC schools to emulate caused me to leave teaching
There is huge pressure from all sides – the federal government, Governor Cuomo, and Mayor Bloomberg – on the UFT, the NYC teachers union, to agree to a test-based teacher evaluation and compensation system in NYC. Similar pressures are being exerted on teachers throughout the US, as a result of "Race to the Top" and the corporate reform agenda being promoted by the Gates Foundation and the other members of the Billionaire Boys Club. In his State of the City address, Bloomberg also proposed that teachers rated highly through such a system should get a salary increase of $20,000 a year. Merit pay has been tried in many cities, including NYC, and has never worked to improve student outcomes. When challenged about the evidence for such a policy, Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson tweeted a link to a recent NY Times puff piece about DC’s Impact system, in which a couple of teachers who had received bonuses after being rated “highly effective” were interviewed as saying that this