Hoping to attract experienced teachers to the city's worst schools, the head of the teachers union is proposing a plan for smaller class sizes and cash bonuses. UFT President Randi Weingarten will float her three-pronged "Collaboration for Education" proposal at the union's annual spring conference today.
Her most sweeping suggestion would be using money from the Campaign for Fiscal Equity settlement to reduce student-teacher ratios by 20% at hard-to-staff schools.
"Smaller classes let teachers make personal connections with every child and differentiate instruction accordingly," Weingarten said in a draft of today's speech.
Schools could either make classes 20% smaller, or educators could teach fewer periods and use additional time to help students.
In addition, Weingarten is suggesting "group transfers" in which several experienced teachers could move together to a more challenging school.
She also proposed a bonus system for teachers who take on extra duties at struggling schools. Educators could earn the differential pay for starting a parent involvement program, creating an internship program or starting another schoolwide initiative.
The Department of Education declined to comment on the proposals yesterday.
