Steve Levin has been a teacher for 10 years. He is confident he does a good job, confident most of his fellow teachers do, too. That is why he voted for the new pay for performance plan. The plan will involve 450 teachers. We have had tremendous pressure from the public to say we don't like the fact that teachers, no matter how well their kids do, automatically advance each year up the traditional salary schedule.
Some teachers have questions.
Still, the nation's largest teachers union wants to give it a fair shot. And it does, in fact, give us an opportunity to have a real scientific sampling of whether or not performance-based pay will enhance student learning. Since this is just a pilot program, there are very few apparent downsides. Teachers get extra money just for participating, administrators get a real sense of how such a program might work. The Denver plan will be in place for two years, giving educators around the country a chance to see how performance pay performs.