89 elementary and middles schools with improved report cards will collect a bonus rewarding teachers for successful efforts in meeting (or almost meeting) Education Department targets after grades were released this week. Many principals also received bonuses for placing in the top 1 percent of the eligible, high-poverty schools assessed. Based on an agreement with the teachers? unions, individual schools will determine how bonuses are allocated among teachers, though typically awards were distributed evenly. Union support for the bonus program was dependent mostly on the fact that it is school-based rather than individually merit-based, helping to avoid unfriendly teacher competition while providing incentive to work together for improvement and progress.
See "City to Give $14.2 Million in Bonuses to Teachers at Schools With Improved Report Cards", Jennifer Medina, The New York Times, September 18, 2008