INDIANAPOLIS – Dec. 14, 2016 – With the Indiana Department of Education's release of delayed teacher performance awards, ISTA President Teresa Meredith issued the following statement:

“The performance grant data says a great deal about how policymakers value educators in Indiana. While educators at well-resourced schools performed well and received a much-deserved bonus, the educators teaching in some of the most challenging districts where socioeconomic factors can negatively impact student and school performance, were left out.”

“Take a teacher from a high-performing, well-resourced school and move them to some of these outside-the-school challenges and their bonus just decreased by 98 to 100 percent.”

“This idea of teacher bonuses based largely on student test scores has always been based on a flawed premise and the allocation spreadsheet we’ve seen bears this out. We need high-quality educators to teach at our most challenged schools, and this distribution of bonuses certainly won’t compel them to do so. Our educators and our kids deserve better.”

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