Merit Pay Contract Is Tough Sell for Newark Teachers
The leaders of the local teachers union in Newark have agreed to a compromise with city management that includes merit pay with peer evaluations, although many teachers oppose the measure.
By KATE ZERNIKE
Published: October 28, 2012
NEWARK — On one side of the table was the union firebrand Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. On the other was the state education commissioner handpicked by Gov. Chris Christie, who became a star among fellow Republicans for aggressively taking on public employee unions.
Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times
Newark teachers at a meeting last week to discuss a proposed contract.
During months of intense and late-night negotiations for a new teachers contract for the chronically troubled Newark school system, the parties settled on what they believed would be a landmark compromise.
At the center of it was merit pay — the idea of paying teachers based on performance that has long been a flash point between critics of teachers’ unions who believe it would increase accountability, and union leaders who fear that performance would be based on test scores rather than the subtleties of classrooms.
Though Ms. Weingarten had criticized what she calls “merit pay schemes,” she and the other union leaders