D.C. Teachers Contract Provides for Performance Pay and Job Security Modifications

D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) and the Washington Teachers Union (WTU) unveiled an agreement in early September for a new teacher-pay bonus plan based on teacher performance. The agreement was reached in the new teacher contract released in June. At a time when most districts are freezing pay or taking cuts, D.C. has seemingly managed the unthinkable by providing substantial pay increases for its teachers and inducing the teachers union to accept major modifications to traditional job security guarantees. The new contract is the product of nearly two-and-a-half years of “contentious negotiations” and includes a five-year, 21.6 percent increase in base pay for WTU educators. Previously base pay capped at about $87,500 after 21 years of work with DCPS, now there is a possible annual salary of $130,000 after nine years.

Teachers who have a rating of “highly effective” under the IMPACT plan will be eligible for both performance pay increases, and annual bonuses. Last year 16 percent of the DCPS teaching force received a highly effective rating. The District has obtained $31.5 million in private foundation support to help pay for the performance bonuses and base pay increases.

The bonus plan is based on an updated version of IMPACT, the DCPS effectiveness assessment system for school-based personnel. IMPACT was introduced in 2009, in order “to provide a common language for instruction, a clear set of performance expectations, and the beginnings of a comprehensive system for guidance and support.” The new plan, IMPACT plus, measures educators differently based on teaching positions. “Group 1” educators are able to receive the most increases, and include reading and mathematics teachers for grades four through eight in high-poverty schools. IMPACT plus for Group 1 measures performance based on student growth (50 percent), performance on teaching and learning framework indicators (40 percent), commitment to school community (5 percent), and a school-value added measure (5 percent).

Well-performing teachers in Group 1 who teach in high-needs schools can receive an annual bonus of up to $25,000. To achieve the maximum, these teachers must teach at a school having a free and reduced-price lunch rate of 60 percent or greater($10,000 bonus); be part of an IMPACT Group 1 meaning that 50 percent of their IMPACT assessment comes from student growth data ( $10,000) and teach in a “high-need” subject, ($5,000). Other highly effective teachers not meeting all of these critieria, are eligible for bonuses ranging from $3,000-$12,500. In addition, teachers who achieve highly effective status for two years in a row will be eligible for an increase in their base pay in two ways. First, they will be moved into the master’s degree salary band, if they are not there already. And secondly, they will receive a service credit as if they had additional years in the system. The size of the service credit will depend on the free and reduced-price lunch rate of the schools at which they teach.

In return for the salary and bonus provisions, the teachers have relinquished certain job security protections. In the future, if jobs are eliminated because of budget cuts or other reasons, principals can decide who to “excess’ based mainly on performance and school needs, rather than strictly on seniority. Teachers who are excessed will have a choice of taking a $25,000 buyout, or early retirement with 20 years service; teachers rated “effective” will also have a third option of receiving or a full year with pay and benefits in order to search for another permanent position in the DCPS system. The union negotiators scuttled Rhee's original proposal for a two-tier plan that would have forced teachers seeking top pay levels to relinquish tenure for a year, exposing them to dismissal without the right to appeal.

Ironically, after achieving this contractual breakthrough with the teachers union, Chancellor Rhee may shortly be leaving the DCPS. Since her boss, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, lost the Democratic Primary nomination to Vincent Gray last week, it is unclear whether Rhee’s tenure will continue under the District’s new leadership. Rhee campaigned heavily for Mayor Fenty and some believe Gray’s nomination was in part due to a backlash against Rhee and her aggressive turnaround style for D.C. schools. A recent article in Education Week notes that, “The hard-charging pace of change won widespread praise among education reformers and commentators nationally, but earned the mayor and his schools chief the enmity of many city residents and teachers’ union members, who felt left out of the loop and harbored bitterness about the dismissal of veteran teachers and other staff members.”

The recent agreement between DCPS and the WTU may reflect a more general trend among teacher unions to negotiate performance pay and tenure modification provisions. In Seattle, for example, a new contract will allow student test scores to be a part of a new teacher-evaluation system, although in a more limited way than district administrators had hoped. In the contract, low student growth scores will be used to “trigger a closer look at teachers, even if principals otherwise have decided they’re doing a competent job,” according to an article in The Seattle Times.