E-Comp-Florida's newly-announced performance pay plan that would give bonuses to the top 10 percent of the state's teachers-is an ambitious and promising reform proposal.
Sunshine State law says that teachers ought to be rewarded when their students are learning. Under the plan announced last week by the state Department of Education, the one-teacher-in-ten whose classes show the greatest improvement on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) will earn a 5 percent pay bonus, which on average would amount to approximately $2,000. Another part of the plan bases a portion of all teachers' pay on their students' achievement-which can accumulate over time to sizable rewards for effective instructors. Teachers won't have to fill out applications or jump through any hoops-the state will do the calculations, based on the Florida FCAT assessment system.
Unfortunately, E-Comp is not receiving the serious discussion it deserves. Instead, it's receiving predictable brickbats from the usual suspects. Even a lawsuit.
One gripe is that E-Comp supersedes district decision-making. In fact, the state had tried since 2002 (when Florida's performance pay law was passed) to leave bonus distribution in district hands. But in most districts that worked horribly. To receive their bonuses, teachers had to navigate mazes of paperwork and complicated applications. Some districts constructed so many bureaucratic barriers that after three years they've still not awarded a single bonus. Last year, 24 districts (more than a third of all those in the state) did not award any performance-pay money.
The legislature's intent was plainly being thwarted. With E-Comp, the state abolishes convoluted application procedures and simplifies the bonus criteria so that deserving teachers will automatically receive the stipends to which they're entitled.
Much of the resistance to E-Comp is due to its reliance on the FCAT. But the FCAT is the cornerstone of Florida's accountability system (which has been responsible for the Sunshine State's progress on national academic measures), and it's the sole method by which the state measures student performance. Districts and schools are already judged (and rewarded or sanctioned) by students' FCAT scores-why not teachers, too?
There are, however, areas where E-Comp is problematic, notably its ambiguity for instructors who teach "non-FCAT" subjects (e.g., art, history, music) and how they will qualify for bonuses. Here the state has charged districts with the responsibility of creating their own assessment mechanisms. Causing one to wonder: If districts bungled the management of performance-based bonuses before, are they up to this responsibility now? (Presumably the state doesn't want to test kids in more subjects than it already is.)
On balance, E-Comp deserves honest debate-and considerable applause. It holds much promise for Florida's students, and for the future improvement of the state's education system.
"State may tie teacher bonuses to tests," by Matthew I. Pinzur, Miami Herald, February 11, 2006
"The FCAT and teacher pay," St. Petersburg Times, February 14, 2006
"Reward Teachers With Merit Pay," Tampa Tribune, February 12, 2006