Why is gettng the sole bonus a problem in your school? Lots of employeers outside of the public schools give bonuses to their employees. It does not destroy their organizations. The employers do it to enhance them.

Would it make a difference if only you and your employer knew what you were earning?

See how dicey it can get?

In math, the path is much clearer and supports that method, I agree. Not so much in English and Social Studies.

I’m just not sure I want to be set up as the only one in the dept. getting a $5K bonus every year.

Perhaps pay a fraction of that to the teachers of the prerequisite classes, if those students attended them?  (Of course, if a teacher teaches the prerequisite too that would leave the same issue.)

Unfortunately, the newspaper publishes a database that shows who got how much; you should hear it then….

I know my AP English teacher (who I feared and hated at the time, but really appreciated once I got to college!) kicked our butts on a regular basis. There was no sliding, no cruising. She graded harshly, she made us know the books inside and out, and she didn’t cut us any slack.

She also turned out a lot of 5s. The kids who took homors English to avoid her and then took the AP test on their own didn’t do as well.

So, at least in my experience, a good AP teacher DOES do something that other teachers (and earlier teachers) don’t do.

Also, given the number of papers and tests she assigned, I’d guess that her out-of-school workload was a lot higher than other teachers. We were reading a book every week or two, had a paper every week, a test every week, plus vocab quizzes, in class essays, etc. The honors kids had a lot less work, which means their teacher had less to grade, and less to plan.

A teacher like that DESERVES the ‘high score’ bonus. (Of course, Dr. Smith had a PhD in a county that paid more for them, so I guess she was already more highly paid than other English teachers? But still….. her class actually prepared me for college– she deserved every penny!)

While I’d love to get that check for my passing scores, something would need to be built in for other teachers. I’d be the only one eligible in my department and I certainly did not get the kids to that point all on my own.