Teachers at a charter school in Louisiana received eye-popping bonuses.
One got a bonus of $43,000–more than 75% of her annual salary–for raising test scores by 88% in one year.
Five teachers shared bonuses of $167,000,
The money comes from a federal grant.
One teacher saw a gain of nearly 200%, but she teaches kindergarten, so she received only $4,086.
The school got a grade of D from the state. Last year, it was D-.
The scores, the grades, the gains, the bonuses. Are the children better educated? Who knows?
In other districts, gains of this size usually are grounds for an investigation. But this is Louisiana, so forget about it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m no Einstein, but if I raised my deductions on my income tax by 88% in one year wouldn’t that raise a big red flag?
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When I read this, my first thought was that somebody cheated. Let’s face it, teachers aren’t so well paid that a nice fat bonus would not be nice. How efffective is this teacher, really? Do her students have skills beyond filling in bubbles or choosing the correct answer out of 4? I would rather my students return to me later, telling me that I taught them life lessons, or made them think differently, or that they learned how to problem solve with my help. Yes, I have to teach test taking skills as well, but I view that as the least important skill. I hope common sense prevails soon, before our education system is totally ripped to shreds.
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Welcome to Louisiana. The late great Governor Earl Long once said of a local politician, “You can’t trust that guy. He’s been in politics all his life and doesn’t have a penny to show for it”.
(Paraphrase of Earl Long from the book “The Earl of Louisiana” by A. J. Leibling)
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This is one of the reasons why I think if we are going to pursue bonuses then we really to sit down and think about how/what we want to reward. The test score gap is already present in kindergarten so to undervalue early primary ed is ludicrous. Second, giving top tier bonuses to single teachers and classrooms is not going to ameliorate systemic issues. We need entire grades and schools to do better.
With this in mind bonuses should be administered with a formula which is structured in the following way; though here I construct an overly simplified model. First teachers should be rewarded for student gains and/or maintaining top tier scores. Students who have a history of struggling in the classroom should have different weights in terms of gain score bonuses. The classroom level bonus should be 2x $$$. In other words, teachers with students who demonstrate gains in achievement receive $2,000. Next we reward 3.5x $$$ for grade level gains. If all the 5th grade teachers in the school increase achievement for their students then that entire cohort of teachers gets a larger bonus than if only their individual classroom did well; $3,500. I would presume this would encourage more collaboration within grade and perhaps even encourage teachers from subsequent grades to begin getting know students who might be in their classrooms the following year. Finally, the school bonus should be 4-5x $$$. Meaning if the majority of the school demonstrates gains in achievement then all staff: teachers, nurses, aids, administration receives a 4 – 5,000 bonus.
Again weights could be attached to schools with histories of performance/achievement issues, increasing the value of bonuses for when these schools demonstrate improvement. What I suggested here is obviously a crude model, but certainly we think more strategically about the ways in which to reward students and teachers.
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There should be no bonuses because schools are not businesses.
The chances for abuse are very great.
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Being in the school that has been rated Excellent with Distinction for several years and really no public recognition for the fact, the constant race to improve has been truly tiring. Just think, when districts that are highly effective have teachers who have been “busting themselves” to give students a great education, and then have to be held to an ever higher standard, it is just as exhausting as it is for teachers in a school that is on academic watch. I don’t advocate complacency, but when is there a recognition for doing well all the time? This testing dependency is out of hand, esp when there is no evidence that these tests are factually sound.
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The thing is, these particular teachers are victims too. They’re just being used to show other teachers what’s possible if you just buckle down and get with the program. Sort of like the lottery theory – “somebody’s gonna Lotto, might as well be you.” But obviously no teacher can keep producing such gains, so eventually (probably by next year) these fabulous bonuses will evaporate. And it’s even likely that these same teachers will eventually find themselves on the “ineffective” list and in danger of losing their jobs.
Casinos often rig it so that a new gambler wins a fair amount in order to hook him/her into gambling, as well as to get other people believing they too can win like that. And then by the end of the night they all go home with the shirts on their backs. This is no different.
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I would think that jealousy would be a problem. There may have been only one top scoring classroom but what about all the teachers whose classroom was one point behind? Sure, like in football (this is king in Louisiana) there is one winning team but that doesn’t mean the other team didn’t play their hearts out. I see this as very destructive to organizational morale, on top of all the other reasons merit pay doesn’t work. Even if they never pay a merit bonus again, no one will forget this year. I would feel horrible if was that $43,000 teacher.
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Something seems fishy down in Louisiana.
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Another ridiculous federal grant. I guess that beats the robotic squirrel and the contingency plan for aliens taking over earth. Look it up if you don’t believe me.
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Ridiculous. When that much money is at stake, you can be sure that teachers are going to cheat.
Shoot. I’ve seen teachers ‘cheat’ for just the attention received for higher test scores.
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Is it really possible to raise your students test scores 88% in one year?
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My question exactly.
What does that even mean?
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Good question. I wonder if they compared her current students with her previous year students, which does happen. That is not at all meaningful. Even if it was the same group of kids, maybe they were not developmentally ready for whatever they were learning in the previous year.
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Ask Michelle Rhee. She did more than that when she was a “teacher.”
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I went to a meeting today and had my eyes opened – WIDE. As a teacher at a ruraL schoo, we are a little behind on this VAM thing. Needless to say at district wide meetings I get to meet teachers from all over, some from much larger suburban districts. They already have their pay based on students’ and the school’s improvement on tests.
WELL, the teachers have figured the whole student improvement thing out- DISTRACT THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF THE STUDENTS DURING THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR TEST – Yep, that is exactly what many of them are doing. Play music, talk on the phone, talk to other teachers very loudly, clean the room…do what ever you can to lower your students scores at the beginning and then have a silent, well ordered room, with hints everywhere at the end of the year, Success. The test isn’t fair, why should teachers have to play fair
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It’s sad and dangerous how ordinary professionals – and exceptional ones as well – are subject to corrupting themselves.
And as far as I’m concerned, the President’s and Duncan’s silence in all of this is reprehensible. They both planted the rodent traps to ensnare teachers and did so for their friends in the House and Senate, and now they prance around, exclaiming, “Poor little mice with your necks snapped in half. HOW did that happen? We’d love to help, but it’s really note our role. It’s the states that have to deal with rodents, not us!”
But really, the only true rabies-ridden, caked-in-dirt rats in the room that are the most visible are Obama and Duncan.
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This does not even start to pass the smell test. In fact, it is rancid.
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I was an English teacher in Southern California and busted a math teacher for changing his students’ answers (actually an OCD student pointed it out to me first when she wanted to make sure all of her bubbles were filled in perfectly).
But the math teacher couldn’t master that whole “different test booklets,” schema, so he changed a whole bunch of answers and made them WRONG in addition to being really sloppy.
The year before I had started teaching there, the students’ scores significantly improved (without cheating), but the promised bonuses didn’t happen because the shipping company lost a significant chunk of test booklets. (Note: the bonuses were more like in the range of $1000 per teacher, but mostly it was for the school and had been earmarked to buy library books.)
I quit teaching. It has become too preposterouss
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