Education

Disorder of Merit

March 12, 2007 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Remember that Houston merit-pay mess a couple of months ago?

It’s just gotten messier.

In January, under the largest merit-pay program of its kind, school officials doled out $14 million to almost 8,000 staffers. Exactly who got what became public record—and a public outcry—after a local newspaper printed names and dollar figures.

Perplexingly, some teachers of the year were not among the recipients, who got anywhere from $100 to more than $7,000. So then administrators gave out $1 million more to cover the hundreds of overlooked teachers.

Now comes word that 99 teachers will have to give some of the money back, or face legal action. Officials blame a haywire computer program for the glitch that paid out about $75,000 (in amounts of $63 to $2,800 per teacher) more than the district meant to disburse.

“It’s just another example of how poorly thought out and planned the whole program was, so it’s not surprising these kinds of mistakes are being made,” said Steve Antley, a middle school teacher who didn’t receive a bonus.

Hopefully whoever’s responsible for this mess isn’t in charge of the math curriculum.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Web Watch blog.

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Briefly Stated: March 13, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 21, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 7, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: January 31, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read