He also managed to negotiate a three-year contract with the Boston Teachers Union that gave teachers a 4 percent salary increase in exchange for more instructional time. The contract also calls for basing teacher evaluations, in part, on whether teachers help achieve the goals in their school's improvement plan, including goals for raising student performance. He acknowledges that his strategy has yet to pay off in concrete improvements, such as higher test scores. But he contends that educators are on notice, and that classroom practices are starting to change. Mr. Payzant also says he plans to raise the stakes for students, by putting in place a promotion policy tied to performance.
Educators say they do, indeed, feel that the stakes are higher.
There's a lot of anxiety among the staff. But she worries that teachers are not being given enough time to learn how to teach to the standards. Every school needs more time, and every district is going to have to figure out a way to get it into the standard life of the teacher. Some of the city districts, such as those in the port towns of Fall River and New Bedford, still have a majority of white students, but most do not. Many of the small cities, including Chelsea, Lawrence, Springfield, and nearby Holyoke, have seen huge influxes of Hispanic immigrants and other children whose native language is not English.