More than 250 Duval County Teachers were told they’d be receiving bonuses, but were then notified they didn’t qualify for the extra pay.
The bonuses were for high-performing teachers at low-performing schools, funded through the Quality Education for All initiative, according to school officials.
Teachers get paid extra depending on how much improvement their students showed based on the value-added model or student-growth score. On Thursday 273 teachers were told they’d receive the bonus based on scores above the district average, from 1 to 10 percent, but were later told their scores didn't meet the minimum performance threshold.
A statement from Duval Schools said once administrators noticed the error, they immediately notified teachers and apologized for the discrepancy.
No overpayments were made.
The full statement is below.
“On Thursday, March 17, an email was sent out to teachers who qualified to receive the QEA Performance Incentive based on their 2014-2015 growth measure data. Included in this notification were 273 teachers whose performance did not meet the eligibility criteria. Once administrators realized this error, we notified the teachers immediately and apologized for the discrepancy on Monday, March 21. This correction was made prior to any teachers receiving any overpayments. There is no standing regarding this issue because no payment was made. We regret this occurred and know our employees deserve better, and are fortunate the error was identified before payments were included in teacher paychecks. We are excited about the incentives and the additional income that several other teachers will receive based on their performance.”
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