The Cincinnati Federation of Teachers approved the merit-pay system. When a lead teacher and principal evaluate a teacher, he or she must show improvement before advancing to a higher category. As the categories increase, so do salaries. Other school districts have similar plans, according to Janet Walsh, director of communications for CPS, but those plans simply layered the evaluation part of the concept onto existing salary scales. The plan adopted by CPS has attracted attention from as far away as Great Britain, whose ministry of education visited to learn about the approach.
Supporters praise the system because it no longer equates higher salary with seniority.
Because teachers can advance in salary more quickly, CPS hopes to be more competitive in offering a good workplace with room for advancement. It's deplorable that teachers are being rewarded for incompetence. At the Hughes Center, in Clifton, undertones of racial and socioeconomic discrimination, complaints about evaluation systems and conspiracy theories characterized the mood this year. But a series of resolutions seems to have addressed the concerns of Hughes supporters. Fears for the school's future now appear to be past.