Chancellor Urges Broad Changes in Way Teachers Are Paid
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein called yesterday for sweeping changes in the way teachers are paid in New York City, advocating bonuses based on student achievement and higher salaries for teachers who agree to work in troubled schools and for those in fields where there are staff shortages, like math and science.

Mr. Klein gently praised the teachers' union for offering to try a streamlined contract, in a limited number of schools, that would do away with most work rules. He also applauded a proposal by the union president, Randi Weingarten, to speed the disciplining and dismissal of incompetent teachers.

Addressing a breakfast forum sponsored by Crain's New York Business, Mr. Klein was unrelenting in his demands for a complete overhaul of the way teachers are compensated. "We have to change the culture of our schools," Mr. Klein said. "We don't have a culture of excellence."

Contract talks with the union, the United Federation of Teachers, are to resume next week.

In his speech, Mr. Klein endorsed a recent report by the Teaching Commission, a group led by Louis V. Gerstner, the former chairman of I.B.M., that urged incentive pay and other bonuses for public school teachers, as well as greater authority for principals in personnel decisions, including hiring and dismissing teachers.

"I think this is a seminal document," Mr. Klein said, adding that he had arranged for copies of the report to be distributed to the audience of 350 business leaders. Even though he praised the report, Mr. Klein declined to embrace one of its major recommendations: that base pay for teachers be increased across the board.

The report's No. 1 recommendation says: "We call on school districts and unions to address the critical problem of low base compensation while also ensuring that a significant portion of future increases in teachers' total compensation is tied to improvements in student performance."