The Prince George’s County, Md., school system is rewarding teachers for good performance in the classroom, paying $1.1 million to 279 teachers and administrators from a dozen schools.
Those staff members volunteered for the merit-pay pilot, but Superintendent William Hite Jr. says that he’d like to see it expanded and that the district is working with the teachers’ union to do so. The program offered bonuses of up to $10,000 for teachers, $11,500 for assistant principals and $12,000 for principals.
Half the bonus money is tied to student scores on state tests, and the other half is granted for teaching in hard-to-staff subjects, a classroom-skills evaluation, and professional-development participation.
