Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.metro From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Fairfax details its merit teachers Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 16:10:35 EST Message-ID: \SE B;METROPOLITAN \HD Fairfax details its merit teachers \BY Maria Koklanaris \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Fairfax County's merit-pay teachers - an elite group of educators who earned a bonus after a rigorous performance evaluation - are more common in the county's newer and wealthier communities, according to a report the Fairfax County School Board received Monday. It was the first time the School Board has gotten a list of the number of merit-pay teachers in each of the county's 192 schools and special-education centers. Most information about merit-pay teachers - about 25 percent of the county's 9,200 teachers - was confidential until the School Board voted 7 to 4 last February to suspend the 9 percent bonus the teachers were due to receive. The evaluation system used to decide which teachers are eligible for merit pay, however, is still in limited use. Superintendent Robert R. Spillane, the architect of merit pay in Fairfax, proposed a 4.5 percent bonus for merit-pay teachers in the fiscal 1994 budget scheduled for approval Dec. 10. The board is split on whether to fund that bonus. Monday's report, prepared by school administration at the request of board member Letty Fleetwood of Providence, found that of 43 county schools where more than 25 percent of the teachers are eligible for merit pay, 35 are located in the northern and western parts of the county, where many newer and wealthier communities are located. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, the regional high-tech magnet school with the most National Merit semifinalists in the nation, boasts the highest proportion of merit-pay teachers of any school in Fairfax - 65 percent. There are 33 county schools, almost all of them elementary schools, with less than 10 percent merit-pay teachers. Twenty-six of those schools are located in the older, less prosperous parts of the county. Mrs. Fleetwood, a staunch merit-pay foe, said yesterday that the information shows "we have a real problem, particularly in terms of the amount of money that we have spent on [merit pay and its evaluation system]. The funds have not been going out in a proportionate manner." School Board Chairman Joanne T. Field and school officials cautioned that School Board members should not draw conclusions about any school based on the number of merit-pay teachers there. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM