A Times Editorial

Illusion of merit pay for teachers

Teachers who work extra hard ought to get extra money, but Florida's new merit pay plan is little more than an illusion.

The "performance-based pay program" that is tucked inside Gov. Jeb Bush's A+Education Plan is being put into effect this school year, and its intent is to reward those teachers who do the best work. But most school districts across the state are actively thumbing their noses at it, and for understandable reason: The Legislature is directing that teachers get extra pay without providing the dollars to do so.

The money is no small issue. Teacher pay in Florida ranks 30th in the nation, and is below both the national average and the pay offered in neighboring states such as Georgia. The merit pay directive offers no new state financial support; rather, it requires that each district set aside enough money to pay 5 percent bonuses to 15 percent of the teachers, which translates to $1.8-million in Pinellas and $2.7-million in Hillsborough. That money is pulled from already meager district budgets, and siphons from the classroom or from general salary increases themselves.

The other problem is the standard by which the Legislature wants teachers to be judged. The law says the merit increases must be tied to student performance, and the state says student performance is measured by the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

The FCAT scores can be a misleading judge of a teacher's work output. Those who teach honors classes, for example, preside over students who already are advanced in their abilities and are likely to score well on the FCAT regardless of the instruction. Those who teach remedial classes may work harder yet have students who score lower. Also, the FCAT measures math, writing and reading in grades 3-10, which means it is irrelevant to first-grade or 12th-grade teachers or those who teach science or physics or music or foreign language or physical education.

The result of all this is that many school districts are producing merit pay plans that are intended to provide little merit pay. The Pinellas plan, for example, requires that teachers meet a formidable series of individual performance measures as well as having taught in both a school and a classroom that have produced FCAT learning gain scores that are 20 percent greater than the expected state gains. Pasco requires extensive continuing education courses. Hillsborough's plan is said to be more rigorous than national certification.

"Pay for performance is a competitive process, and it can be a divisive thing,"says Ron Stone, associate superintendent for human resources in Pinellas schools. "The reality for us is that it is an unfunded mandate, and our own employees don't want it."

The teachers are the ones who would benefit from merit pay, but the Legislature ignored their advice on how to judge quality instruction and then pretended that raises are free. In the end, a plan ostensibly aimed at providing incentive is instead creating further disillusionment.

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