We have been reading about the Lake County, FL School District's filing of a STAR "awards plan" with the State of Florida to obtain an estimated $5-million for one shot financial awards to teachers who have improved student FCAT scores in the subjects of math, science, etc. Then there were the articles where Teacher Union leaders said that would be "unfair" and reduce cooperation between employees. They want to siphon off some of the FCAT incentives in STAR for teachers who don't teach those subjects. But, then why have organized sports where winners are announced, or give test exams where all students compete for higher grades, but not use incentives for teachers who help students improve FCAT scores that increase their survival skills in the real world? Some people might say the teachers just don't want to compete, or be measured, or that the union doesn't want variable merit pay which rewards the good performers over the less motivated.
Here is what the UF study press release said (full text further down):
Many teachers criticize these bonus plans, saying they raise questions about fairness and they destroy cooperation among teachers.
”It’s important to note that the form of performance pay we’re looking at is linked to student outcomes rather than principal assessments,” Figlio said. “One reason why performance pay based on principal assessments is not very effective is that principals are under a huge amount of pressure to say that everybody is excellent.”
Life is unfair. People were drafted and sent to Vietnam. People have been laid off from jobs based usually on performance, not seniority. The teachers and administration need to accept that students need improved reading and writing and math skills to compete with Indian , Asian and even Minnesota students just to get into college, or get that first job. Here in Florida, many construction workers who are high school graduates, cannot even pass the math portions of the Florida State contractor's license exam. In the past, I have seen even college graduates demoted because their writing skills were so poor. Almost every salesman competes in an "unfair" world and is measured by sales performance and receives compensation based upon variable sales levels.
I spent two years in Iraq, and one reason Iraqi's cannot compete in world markets with exports is they never had to compete for the last 30 years. Their accounting systems are so bad that world banks will not trust their accounting and lend them funds. They worked under a socialistic, communist government where most workers were in nationalized, centralized government agencies and companies and they were paid ONLY based on education level (where diplomas were forged in many cases) and seniority. There was NO incentive for workers to work an entire day, generate new ideas or learn new skills.
Any incentive for Lake County teachers that will improve student chances of competing for work or college should be supported. By watering down the State STAR incentive programs by creating "incentive" tests for teachers who DON'T teach (or know how to teach) math, science, writing and other FCAT score subjects, incentive funds for improving FCAT scores is being siphoned off. Let's stop being politically correct and award the Florida incentives towards improving the skills that will help students survive in the real world and get that first job or get into a preferred college. And then start a program for merit pay based upon student results, not subjective administrative evaluations.
VJ
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Today, the Daily Commercial had an article about a Univ. of Florida study showing that merit pay did actually improve performance of students. Below is the original UF press release about the study.
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The UF press release below is from:
http://news.ufl.edu/2007/01/04/teacher-merit-pay/
UF study: Teacher merit pay boosts student standardized test scores
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A carrot for teachers helps students stick to the books, according to a new University of Florida study that finds merit pay for instructors equates to better test scores for their pupils.
Pay incentives for teachers had more positive effects on student test scores than such school improvement methods as smaller class sizes or stricter requirements for classroom attendance, said David Figlio, a UF economics professor. The study, by Figlio and UF economics professor Lawrence Kenny, has been accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Public Economics.
“This research provides the first systematic evidence of a relationship between individual teacher performance incentives and student achievement in the United States,” Figlio said. “We demonstrate that students learn more when teachers are given financial incentives to do a better job.”
Students at schools with teacher pay-for-performance programs scored an average of one to two percentage points higher on standardized tests than their peers at schools where no bonuses were offered, Figlio said.
“While many explanations have been offered for the disappointing performance of primary and secondary schools, one untested hypothesis lays the blame on there being little or no incentive for teachers to do a good job,” he said. “Good teachers make no more than uninspired, mediocre teachers.”
The UF study found the effects of these pay incentives were strongest in schools with students from the poorest families, perhaps because those schools have the most to gain from the incentive plan, Figlio said.
“Many teachers complain that poor parents often are uninvolved in their children’s education,” he said. “Since there appears to be less parental monitoring in schools serving poorer families, these schools stand to have a greater potential for improvement.”
Figlio and Kenny collected surveys from 534 schools that were among 1,319 public and private schools participating in a national study sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education beginning in 1988. They also collected data on the frequency and magnitude of school salary incentives, analyzing it in relation to student achievement. That achievement was measured in the earlier U.S. Department of Education study on eighth-graders, with follow-up surveys done in 10th and 12th grades.
About 16 percent of American schools have teacher pay-for-performance programs in place, Figlio said. Such financial incentives were the rule rather than the exception early in the 20th century, but they gradually became less prevalent starting in the 1960s, probably because of the rising strength of teachers’ unions, he said.
Many teachers criticize these bonus plans, saying they raise questions about fairness and they destroy cooperation among teachers.
”It’s important to note that the form of performance pay we’re looking at is linked to student outcomes rather than principal assessments,” Figlio said. “One reason why performance pay based on principal assessments is not very effective is that principals are under a huge amount of pressure to say that everybody is excellent.”
One proposal that links teachers’ bonuses to student performance is a Florida plan that awards the top 10 percent of teachers in each school district a 5 percent bonus based on student gains on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Figlio believes such an approach, using standardized tests, recognizes individual teacher accomplishments without destroying the incentive of teachers within a school to work together.
“This is important because one of the major criticisms of performance pay systems is that teaching is a collaborative enterprise,” he said. “If a principal has to identify a single excellent teacher, it could end up pitting one colleague against another.”
The study also found that merit pay proposals that targeted only a few teachers for bonuses were more effective than programs in which large numbers of instructors received some kind of reward, Figlio said. “Doling out merit pay to most teachers seems to provide them with little incentive to do a better job,” he said.
Figlio said he believes the ideal merit pay system would reward both individual teachers as well as teams of teachers.
Credits
- Writer
- Cathy Keen, ckeen@ufl.edu, 352-392-0186
- Source
- David Figlio, figlio@ufl.edu
- Source
- Lawrence Kenny, larry.kenny@cba.ufl.edu, 352-372-7306
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We focus on topics that would improve the effectiveness, efficiency and economy of local government and institutions in Lake County, FL. A major focus is on the Lake County School District, which is the largest employer (5000 employees) with a budget of over $700-million.
vj
