Florida, Idaho Push For Merit Pay, Could Set National Precedent For Teacher Contracts

Across the country, a divisive education reform movement has widely called for schools to hold teachers accountable for their students' performance.

President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have been vocal in their support for merit pay, the practice of financially rewarding teachers for students' improvement on standardized tests.

Now, Idaho is on the brink of enacting a statewide teacher merit pay policy, while Florida isn't far behind.

At a time when the Wisconsin government has cut down unions' collective bargaining rights, and other states are waging anti-union battles, Idaho and Florida are pressing for merit pay -- and other controversial reforms -- without the blessing of teachers unions.

Idaho Schools Chief Tom Luna says, "this legislation is all about recognizing and rewarding our great teachers," painting the policy in a positive light. Unions disagree, however, arguing against reforms that link teacher evaluations, pay and firing too strongly students' test scores.

Under Obama's "Race to the Top" initiative, states applied for grant money to pursue changes in education policy in 2009. Winners were announced last year.

While Florida won $700 million for reforms, some of which will be used to bankroll the merit pay plan, Idaho's grant was rejected, leaving the state to reallocate education funds to foot the bill.

According to the Associated Press,

The [Idaho] merit pay plan carries a $38 million price tag in the 2013 fiscal year, and a $51.3 million in the 2014 fiscal year.

The Idaho bill passed the House on Wednesday, March 9, and awaits Governor C. L. Butch Otter's signature. With the governor's approval, Idaho will officially become the first state to pass merit pay legislation.

Earlier this week, another education reform bill was sent to the governor's desk, this one including plans to do away with teacher tenure and limit collective bargaining.

Meanwhile, in Florida, where a bid for teacher merit pay was unsuccessful last year, a revised bill has passed the Senate on Thursday, March 10, and is expected to succeed in the House. While Governor Charlie Crist vetoed the bill last year, the new governor, Rick Scott, is known to have a more favorable view of merit pay.

Florida's merit pay bill also cuts teacher tenure, banning it for educators hired after July, 2011. According to The New York Times, the passage of the bill "would position Florida as a leader among those states taking on teachers' unions."

The push toward merit pay in Idaho, and especially in Florida, begs the question: will other states follow suit?

Comments

[SercaneT]

01:44 PM on 03/16/2011

In spite of what "merit pay" advocates claim, this is not about improving student outcomes. Even if they will not admit it, the people pushing these schemes believe that if only the "best" teachers are rewarded, they will save money. That is, reward only a few, and starve the rest. Every single "merit pay" proposal I have ever seen (and I've seen a bunch) had budget-cutting as its core objective.

And this is supposed to make teaching an attractive job and enhance its status as a profession?

[kansasmagic]

02:50 AM on 03/20/2011

And out of the other side of their mouths, merit pay proponents are promising that this will *raise* teacher salaries! See, e.g., Michelle Rhee: http://www.takepart.com/news/2010/06/03/the-140000-question-will-dcs-new-contract-lure-better-teachers

But if this program works, and only "the best" teachers enter and remain in the profession, where will the money come from to pay their massive salaries?

[Vgman]

03:20 PM on 03/14/2011

Merit pay is a horrible idea. No two teachers in the school teach under the same circumstances. The number of students taught, the amount of built in paperwork, the type of student, elementary vs. high school, ect. We are not working on an assembly line all making the same widgets. Add the test score issue into it and everyone will want to teach the best and the brightest.

[ruolivert]

05:44 PM on 03/14/2011

Plus it introduces greed into the equation: a teacher now has to decide whether to teach kids what they need to be sucessful or what they need to know so the teacher can get a bonus.

[Venicelady]

09:51 PM on 03/15/2011

Or, encourage teachers and administrators to fudge their student data and grades to make it APPEAR that the students are "achieving".

[wakeupyouall]

04:49 PM on 03/20/2011

And many good teachers who will just decide it isn't worth. It not like teaching is so in demand. It takes a unique person to be a good teacher in spite of the present day difficulties. Teaching to the test is a terrible idea and dumbs down the whole education process.

[INRScience]

10:09 AM on 03/14/2011

Question .Are Sweden, Canada doing these tests? Is China? I don't think so

[CdnMomma]

06:44 AM on 04/06/2011

If you're talking about standardized tests, then yes, Canada does do them... and they're being increasingly used as "adequate" measure of student performance. We're increasingly being pressured to teach what will be on the test in a very particular way.. which may not always be conducive to the student's education.

[AnthropologistAmongApes]

05:03 PM on 03/13/2011

To all merit pay advocates;

Say an inner city teacher has a combinatio­n class of 34 5th and 6th grade students from a high poverty and crime neighborho­od. How shall their progress be gaged against a teacher in a wealthy suburb with 21 students who come prepared to learn?

You cannot measure teacher performanc­e without a uniform student population­, and that is absurd. Many students are so hungry they cannot commit learning to memory, how should a teacher be held to account for this problem? Many students have psychologi­cal problems that are a function of poverty and prevent effective learning. Others are dealing with broken families and learning disabiliti­es like deficits in attention and group interactio­n.

How are teachers with radically different class sizes, student populations and differences in resources to be meritoriously awarded? Could it be that you know the best teachers will slowly migrate to the better of working conditions; and that you secretly view this as a way to reinstate economic segregation?

How shall all these variables in the "inputs" be fairly assigned to economic reward for the "outputs"; to use your inappropriate business jargon? I look forward to your replies as fodder for my critique.

[new beginning]

07:54 AM on 03/14/2011

The problem with attempts to "standardize" anything is that you can't account for the outliers.

You have given a lot of reasons why students from high poverty/crime areas can't be expected to learn - and for letting their teachers off the hook. How about the novel concept of ENCOURAGING EXCELLENCE in both teachers and students? Novel approaches to teaching instead of the lazy teaching to the tests that currently goes on?

Without merit pay, we continue to foster mediocrity in our schools.

[Ghoulish]

01:08 PM on 03/14/2011

He never said that "students from high poverty/crime areas can't be expected to learn" -- that is all from you! His post points out that disadvantaged students can't be expected to learn at the same rate as students who have the advantage of a nurturing, educated environment at home. An excellent teacher is unlikely to make the same gains under these circumstances but is going to be punished for it when compared to teachers who only work with "advantaged" students.

Also, you're not going to eliminate your so-called "lazy teaching to the tests" if the merit pay you advocate for is going to be based on test scores.

And students nowadays are so lazy that they don't even know the test when you give them the answers because they don't study. In fact, some students won't even copy notes after they are told they can use those notes on an open-note quiz the next day. Definitely sounds like lazy teachers are the problem...

[AnthropologistAmongApes]

01:52 PM on 03/14/2011

Mediocrity excellence and education can now be described through the framework of in terms of "literacy" in each of 10 cognitive domains. The right's view of excellence is little more than a narrow skill set useful to corporations and capitalism. That insures mediocrity instead of full cognitive literacy. The right seeks no less than to mediocritize the populace under the guise that enhanced performance scores in a narrow bandwidth of cognition is the measure of excellence.

Illiteracy in several critical domains explains the lack of ethics, scientific literacy, logic, causality and connectivity, ecology and anti-intellectualism of the right. Are we really supposed to take conservatives and their ideology seriously when it is fielding so many dullards and is the anti-intellectual political base in the country?

[LISUPT]

08:34 PM on 03/15/2011

Have you ever heard of value added measures? Under this procedure many of the variables you noted are considered when evaluating teachers based on standardarized test scores. This allows the playing field to be leveled for the situations you identified. Secondly, test scores (output) are not the sole determinant when deciding merit. Other variables (input) are also part of the mix. These latter variables, and the weight assigned to them, should be jointly determined by both teachers and administration. Merit can be done if it is comprehensive and includes input from all the stakeholders.

[AnthropologistAmongApes]

09:37 PM on 03/15/2011

Of course I am familiar with "value added" or "relative progress" or "adequate yearly progress" and all the other methods of accounting for a variable student profile. This does not level the playing field in terms of class sizes, resources and specialists. So over time you get the best teachers migrating to the richest school districts. I'm convinced this is actually the prize of merit pay for the right, and its ethically indefensible.

Imagine a teacher in a rural district who wants to teach evolution and factual history while the parents want Texas History and Creationism. Their input will be politically motivated to condemn that teacher, and any administration will simply fire the teacher to avoid any controversy. The breaking of unions is intended to work in concert with merit pay to re-segregate public schools by economic class and ideology. Making that tactic into any thing else betrays an agenda.

[Badgolfer1974]

04:05 PM on 03/13/2011

The 6 things most non-educators don't think about with merit pay:

http://theeducatedsociety.com/merit-pay-the-issues-people-ignore/

[Jerry Bozeman]

03:31 PM on 03/13/2011

Just a reminder that Texas followed this model of merit pay after they fired all the teachers by taking away their teaching certifications. They then tested the teachers with a literacy test and tests in the seperate teaching areas. Yearly evaluations by outside evaluators were implemented and if you were placed on the career ladder you might be considered good enough to get the merit pay. Of course, that lasted about 5 years and was then dropped because it was too costly.

[madisonhack]

10:28 PM on 03/15/2011

When did they get their screwy textbooks? Or their Neil Bush software?

[Jerry Bozeman]

10:54 AM on 03/16/2011

The latest screwy textbook revision was just developed this year by the very conservative Christian majority on the Texas School Board who wanted the history books to be cleansed of any mention of Thomas Jefferson in favor of John Calvin. However: at last report, Texas can't afford new textbooks this year even though we have always led the nation in buying them and they are written with Texas preferences in mind. I guess that means the rest of the country that buy the new version will pay homage to John Calvin and forget Thomas Jefferson since his character like father Abraham's is clouded by their mixed posterity.

I will be waiting for the Inspector General's report on Neil Bush and his software program, "Ignite". However, there are as few things as useless as computers in a middle school software for social studies, science and math. Teachers of the Year seldom use mechanical software to teach adaptive complex children. If you want more of this line of reasoning, read "The Boids and the Bees".

[Martha T]

12:34 PM on 03/13/2011

So, how will special education teachers reap the benefits that will probably be based up TEST SCORES? A sham and deceitful plan that aims to bust unions....

[LISUPT]

08:36 PM on 03/15/2011

Why does teacher reform always translate to busting unions? Don't unions want the best for kids? Or do unions want what's best for the adults?

[madisonhack]

10:31 PM on 03/15/2011

Because the end result is union busting. Charter schools are for profit, and they can't compete with public schools on costs. So, in order to be able to fire enough teachers or get them to quit on their own, people with a vested interest in promoting charter schools need to first bust the unions who advocate for public teachers. It's about making money, again.

[samenames]

11:36 AM on 03/13/2011

What about teachers that take on roles outside the classroom? Next year I'll be taking a coordinator's position. How would my "merit" be evaluated? What about special education teachers? Where is my motivation then to continue teaching in a school where 70% of my students are on free lunch, 20% live in the homeless shelter, 20% are absent every day, and I lose and gain about 10 students each year? My students are held to the exact same standards as students who never have to worry about where their next meal will come from or where they will sleep that night.

My students have already taken the state reading test this year. And I'll make this very clear, I spend about 30 minutes total reviewing what the test looks like with students. I refuse to teach to the test. So far, of my 20 students, 5 exceeded the state standard, 7 met the standard, 4 nearly met the standard, and 4 did not come close to meeting the standard. If you look only at that test, what does that say about my teaching? I guess it's lucky for me that the kids get 2 more shots at the test if they didn't pass.

[Martha T]

12:35 PM on 03/13/2011

F & F

[Jayk4444]

09:07 PM on 03/15/2011

As an education professional, you would know the intricacies of evaluation far better than the public. Surely a system to reward excellence, that adjusts for outliers and other factors such as special education, could be developed.
The point of the bills is to reward those doing an exceptional job, not just allocate pay based on seniority and contract provisions. Surely you know long time teachers that are just putting in their time and others than are motivated and resourceful in doing their jobs. Who would you rather reward?

[Absolute]

10:04 PM on 03/12/2011

Where is the money for "merit pay" coming from?

[Venicelady]

10:48 PM on 03/15/2011

Certainly NOT from the millionaires' pockets that our public spirited politicians pushing this idea seem to favor.

Guess they haven't worked the plan through yet......

[kansasmagic]

02:55 AM on 03/20/2011

Exactly! On the one hand, we're too strapped for cash to pay the average teacher's salary of $45,000 a year (and that's being a little generous); on the other, once we have merit pay systems in place, every teacher who "deserves" it will be getting $140,000!

Something I have never seen discussed - what is the *minimum* pay? First year teachers (who haven't yet had the opportunity show merit) must get paid something, right?

[Doug-Life]

06:34 PM on 03/12/2011

Teachers don't need merit pay. If they wanted to make money they wouldn't have become a teacher.

[poeticjustice4all]

06:49 PM on 03/12/2011

We pay for what we value. Considering what we spend on wars and prisons -- I see nothing wrong with a quality teacher getting fairly compensated . . . regardless of why they entered the profession.

Furthermore -- when you pay people, you can hold them accountable.

[Martha T]

12:49 PM on 03/13/2011

Tell us Poetic, once again, where do you teach? What is your classroom experience and where? just saying,..You have the facts, so you claim. You challenge true statements from actual teachers on this thread but what do you base your "Outrageous", and Simply Not True" Comments on? I think this is a valid and unanswered question. If you are a educator, OK. I can accept your point of view, disagree respectfully, but accept. If you are not, then you are barking up the wrong tree and probably a plant to get on here and dispute everything with some lame talking points.

[Martha T]

01:01 PM on 03/13/2011

and I do agree with your comment on paying for wars and prisons. Education makes success possible and an educated population is a threat to all of those who ar now making a buck off of our children and teachers by diminishing How about paying all teachers their worth, for they ALL walk into the classroom every day against all odds, and there are many,and do a great job considering the attacks. I say, let me pay my doctor based on the accuracy of his diagnosis and treatment, how about the lawyers, the food service people....How about we start paying politicians based on their performance. Wow, now THAT would be fun!

[Martha T]

12:35 PM on 03/13/2011

Beautifully said!!!!!

[sydneymoon]

01:45 PM on 03/12/2011

Perhaps not subjecting special needs children to ridiculous testing on material they are incapbale of truly grasping would be a good start.
Teaching to the test is the least effective means of learning. Accountabi­lity is important, but learning through the means of hands on experiment­ation and investigat­ion should be the goal.

[ausmth]

02:38 PM on 03/12/2011

That would be a good start Sydney. Your post points out what teacher know first hand. The best part of teaching is the kids. The worst part of teaching is the mindless paperwork foisted on us by politicians of both parties trying to make themselves look like they are "pro-education".

[poeticjustice4all]

06:25 PM on 03/12/2011

Nobody is subjecting "special needs children" to ridiculous testing.

Federal law is clear about the use of an I.E. P.

[sydneymoon]

07:07 PM on 03/12/2011

I remember 6 or 7 years ago when someone in the central think tank in Raleigh thought it was a brilliant idea to computerize the End of Grade test for all students including the elementary students. Problem was it taxed the system so much it broke down. Nonetheless, our school's self-contained EC class were expected to take the test on the computer. It wound up taking days. People found out if you logged in early enough you could avoid "the rush", but it was one problem after another.
Yeah, no one was too concerned w/ the well being of the students before the test was administered. Afterwards, it was a big oops! and the idea was scrapped.
I said before it began it was absurd as did the exceptional ed teachers, but I am not in charge of the universe.
Can we not assess these children w/out test booklets, but simply through observation and oral response?

[samenames]

11:20 AM on 03/13/2011

I.E.P.s do not remove testing from special needs students. Instead it provides them the opportunity to take a different kind of test. They are still subjected to ridiculous tests that prove absolutely nothing about a student's education or skills. It's even more painful when you're forced to give these tests to students who don't understand why they have to do them. "Special Education" scores are reported as part of a school's advancement towards AYP.

[60256]

01:38 PM on 03/12/2011

The Economics teacher at my local high school has said this:
"If I get paid based on my students test scores, I will do my best to give them all the answers before they take the test".

[luvbeingright]

02:50 PM on 03/12/2011

Teach them so they can solve the questions.

[60256]

04:34 PM on 03/12/2011

If looked at from a money perspective, why should he waste time teaching if he can just give them the answers and make more money? Besides, you can't force students to learn! (P.S. he's not being serious, it's just an insult to teacher-merit pay and how terrible the idea is).

[The-right-is-wrong]

03:15 PM on 03/12/2011

That !d!ot should be fired immediately.

[60256]

04:33 PM on 03/12/2011

He's saying that as an example of how much of a joke teacher-merit pay is. I feel sorry for any school district that implements this style.

[Skepticat]

01:36 PM on 03/12/2011

If merit pay is based on performance on standardized tests alone and there is no protection for teachers expect the following: Curriculum will quickly become almost entirely standardized test oriented. Anything else not on the test will be removed especially if the program costs money. Teachers will gradually be replaced by test trainers. This will require less formal education and a narrow focus on training students how to score better in tests - so the trainers can be payed less. With only standardized test scores defining success - and reduced program costs there will be huge incentives to privitize, corporatize and franchise schools or "managed" school districts - by Education Management Organizations. Like US health care, profits will be maximized by looking at ways to limit costs. The educational "needy" will become excluded for pre-existing learning problems because they lower scores and cut into profits.
After several years of this "reform" you will have graduates with vastly improved test taking skills ready to enter the workforce of the rapidly expanding global test taking industry. Fortunately for the US other countries expecting their students simply to be skilled, bi- or tri-lingual, think, and research or work with new information in a changed world will be left far behind. Yeah right!

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

01:32 PM on 03/12/2011

Across the country, a divisive education reform movement has widely called for schools to hold teachers accountable for their students' performance.
===========

Ask yourself this question:

Do I want to be held accountable for the decisions of others?

Meaning, in this context, why should teachers be held accountable for the performance of the student who has zero interest in learning what the teacher is obliged to teach on a given day?

Is there really anything even an excellent teacher can do to make up for the student's lack of desire to learn the lesson of the day? In the long run, the answer is no.

If you agree so far, then I offer a suggestion: Put the student in charge of what to learn and when to learn it.

It works really well here:

http://www.sudval.org/

I used to teach there. My kids went there. They are all success stories, but it is not for everyone. It would be a good charter school in every district.

[new beginning]

08:09 AM on 03/14/2011

Wow. What an interesting model! Sure wish I had had a choice like that for my kids. Thanks for sharing.

[emeraldcite]

12:39 PM on 03/12/2011

What really surprises me is that the right thinks there's all these great teachers waiting in the wings for the right paycheck and that they're just not getting their chance in the spotlight.

Good teachers leave for higher pay and better working conditions because they are competent.

Those who stay behind are in one of two groups: 1. They are really good at their job and willing to sacrifice for it and 2. they aren't competent and have no where else to go.

The problem is that the worse you treat teachers, the more they leave. I left the public school system and moved into the college system (which is a bit public, but moving toward privatization due to cutbacks).

At least at the college level, I am respected as a professional, I get administrative support, I have better working conditions, and better pay and benefits.

As a public school teacher, my pay and benefits were being eaten away by the right. I couldn't stick around any more and still support my family.

And, yes, I was a very good teacher.

At one point, I would encourage my students to go into education. It was rewarding, it paid well (although I warned them that you'd never get rich), and it was a safe and secure job.

That's no longer the truth and I apologize to anyone I advised. It was once a respected and safe field, but now it's the scapegoat.

[any mouse]

12:59 PM on 03/12/2011

Many on the right do not understand the concept that you get what you pay for.

People that would never stay at a job that didn't reward them with enormous wealth somehow think that teachers and other people that serve them should live on next to nothing. They really do undervalue any human that isn't their peer.

Like you I no longer encourage students to go into engineering because the US companies have chased the almighty god of profit to Asia and gutted the US employee base.

[flossophy]

01:01 PM on 03/12/2011

By having the government remove the profit motive from education... it condemned the public education system to being another dull, stagnant, dysfunctional government bureaucracy. 

It also discouraged the best and the brightest from becoming teachers, because there was no financial incentive. 

And btw, your pay and benefits were being eaten away by the wasteful, feckless and ineffective public administrative bureaucracy... not by eviI conservatives.

[CindiT]

01:04 PM on 03/12/2011

Someday, flossie, you'll realize that it isn't all about money.

[any mouse]

01:08 PM on 03/12/2011

total and complete BS.

Exactly how would you add the "profit motive" to schools and ensure that a majority of the kids in the US got quality educations that met world-class standards?

BTW if you truly want "profit motive" then schools will cost many times more than they do today.

Of course there is the annoying FACT that all the best schools in the world are PUBLIC (Singapore, China, etc.).

Basically your ideology has made you stupid.