$43,056 bonus to charter teacher at ‘D’-rated school
The obsession among school reformers with standardized test scores and merit pay has led to this: A fourth-grade teacher at a charter school in New Orleans won a $43,056 bonus because her students’ scores skyrocketed at a school with a “D” state rating. But there’s more.According to The Lens, the standardized test scores of Deborah Williams’ students at Pierre A. Capdau Charter School jumped 88 percent in 2011-12.
But another teacher in the charter school network in which Capdau belongs, Capital One New Beginnings Charter School Network, saw a 165 percent jump in test scores. Alas, her students are kindergarteners and they are not part of the state’s school accountability system (though note that the kindergarteners actually took standardized tests.) Teacher Ashleigh Pelafigue got a bonus of $4,086.
Williams was one of five teachers in the New Beginnings charter network to receive a total of $167,669, The Lens said.
Merit pay programs have been implemented in school systems periodically for many