A new twist on teacher bonuses?

Should teachers get bigger bonuses if they're teaching in high-needs schools? The chairman of the Senate Education Committee says yes, if they're doing it well. And he plans on crafting a serious legislative proposal that might give them that opportunity.

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, tells the Gradebook that he'd like next year's Legislature to consider incorporating differential pay into existing state programs that affect teacher pay, including school recognition money, the Merit Award Program and bonuses for national board certified teachers. He said he has discussed the concept with Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith

"When you send somebody in the private sector to a tough situation to turn it around, we call them turnaround artists," Gaetz said. "The least we can do for teachers who take up a tough challenge and a tough mission in a poor or failing or high-poverty school … is to treat them like turnaround artists and give them the opportunity to earn extra compensation."

Gaetz credited the St. Petersburg Times stories for raising awareness about the issue in recent stories, like these here and here. "Your reporting reveals that we have a very important question that we have to answer, which is, are we deploying teacher resources in the best place?" he said.

Currently, all three bonus programs reward teachers with the same amount of money, whether they're teaching in south St. Petersburg or South Tampa. Gaetz said he'd like the education committee to consider a matrix, yet to be developed, that would give teachers in high-needs schools the opportunity to earn more money based on the school's performance and the teacher's performance.

For example, a high-needs school that earned school recognition money might get 125 percent or 150 percent of what a typical school would get, he said. Or a teacher in a high-needs school who earned a bonus under the district's MAP plan might get a 7 or 10 percent bonus rather than a 5 percent bonus.

"So imagine a circumstance where a teacher could earn $8,000 or $9,000 or $10,000 or $12,000 a year more for teaching in a school with tough challenges, by being part of a team that improves the school performance and, as an individual teacher, produces better performance among his or her students," Gaetz said.

Gaetz said the issue is a priority for him next year. Smith has hinted at a similar change in the Department of Education's draft strategic plan.

-- Ron Matus, state education reporter

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Comments

What was this guy's job before being elected as a superintendent? This guy knows nothing about education.

What guy are you referring to? Gaetz is a Florida State Senator, NOT a superintendent. He does know about education and I like his idea. The reward needs to come after the improvement like in any responsible business.

[Bill]

Gee, you mean the pubs in charge didn't realize that if you had the more affluent schools do better, and get more money, that teachers wouldn't leave the poor schools to go to the 'better' schools for the bonus? Gee....who didn't see that coming. Idiots.

11:26, back up and fact check. Mr. Businessman Gaetz was elected superintendent before he was an elected state senator. I simply wonder what highly successful business experiences he had before running for office. The truth is his resume would not qualify him to teach a shop class, let alone run a school district.

[Tom]

"When you send somebody in the private sector to a tough situation to turn it around, we call them turnaround artists," Gaetz said.
The word here is SOMEBODY Mr. Gaetz, not the entire staff!

[Tim]

This should have been done a long time ago. It may encourage some of the good teachers to leave their cushy South Tampa schools and challenge themselves in tough schools. Now, if we can get some accountability for private schools that receive state vouchers. How about making their students take the FCAT? Maybe even require all the teachers to be certified and renew their certification. It is time to compare apples to apples.

[Steve]

This just in, most teachers aren't in it for the money. If they enjoy where they are teaching it's unlikely they risk that for a couple of thousand dollars.

[morganan]

How about just paying all the teachers a living wage? Most, including myself, have to work a second job to earn the national median salary. I have a master's degree and 14 years experience in a high poverty 85% free lunch school. Sure, I knew it wasn't the highest paying job when I went into it, but didn't expect to paid such lowly wages. Merit pay just pits teacher against teacher- instead of working as a team and sharing resources, you end up fighting and hoarding so "they" don't get the bonus and you do. People who think education is like a business and can be run that way, obviously have not spent a lot of time in a classroom lately. I challenge anyone to go to a classroom and spend an hour or so... it will truly open your eyes....

[truth]

Providing high quality teachers with additional bonus money to teach in high-need schools is simply a good idea. Anyone who disagrees with that should be taken out back for a cavity search b/c they are full of something stinky...

[lynn]

Most teachers won't teach in high poverty schools because of all the parent, behavior, and social headaches that go with the territory. $10,000 (before taxes) isn't enough money to get the really good teachers to deal with all the c*** from these schools. Those of us who enjoy working with these students would appreciate the "combat pay." It would allow us to spend more time on the kids instead of on our second jobs.

[wake up]

They already offered bonuses for teachers to go to tough schools. What is the new part? Gaetz should be responsible to the students of Florida by discarding the flawed school grading system which is better at refelecting demographics than measuring school quality. Why hasn't Florida adopted a value added approach? Would the results ruin the political motivation behind the pathetic A+ plan? Why would Florida and
Senator Gaetz want an accountability system that masks poor growth in schools with high rates of proficiency?
That is the perfect climate for dumbing down! Is that how Florida wants to close an achievement gap? Gaetz needs to read Derek Neal's "Proficiency Counts:Left Behind by Design" and DUMP the A+ plan. Make kids' learning the focus, not adults trying to score an extra buck by focusing on bubble kids. Sometimes it helps to have people who know what they are doing design an accurate, fair, and reliable accountability system !

[Ed]

Hey Don, just fund the state's education system appropriately so that teachers can earn better pay. Hell, they do more in a days work than most people do in three days. You and your republican buddies have been dragging our education system in the dirt by unfunding it at the state level for the past 10 years or more! And don't give me that crap about increasing the education budget over the years, growth ate that up long before it got to teachers!

[teacher]

Let's have all these people that come up with the stupid ideas of bonuses spend a little bit of time in a classroom. Who would want to work in conditions where there is no support and awful working conditions when you don't have to? They are always trying to make it more appealing and it never seems to work so get over it already.

This guy has already reformed HIS reform on performance pay twice. The biggest factor in performance pay working is CONSISTENCY. The reason that you need this is because no one is going to change their behaviour for a program that doesn't even stay in place for an entire year. The goal of a performance system is to get every member of the staff to change for the benefit of the kids. Would you take additional self directed training if your data showed that you missed a bonus by a few points and one curriculum area was obviously the shortcoming for your students. YES. But, would you do this if the rules for the program changed entirely every year. NO. So, all we get with the ever changing legislative program is a lottery system where teachers will wait to see if their ticket comes up.

You also need fairness and relevancy (the amount of the bonus needs to mean something). We don't have any of these components because the Legisalture changes the entire program every year (sometimes more than once per year). Term limits means that even someone like Gaetz who should be serious and consistent is not. He changed BEST to MAP and then changed MAP the next year. Now he wants to change MAP, school rec, and excellent teacher programs. He will destroy three programs to develop one that won't do anything unless the Legisalture can leave it alone for more than a year at a time. Legislature's accountability grade - "F."

[James]

People become cops, firemen, teachers, etc. because they have an inner calling to serve the community not to get rich. Yes, they should be paid a good wage and should be able to do this full time, (even with all the days off throughout the year), but please this is pathetic. They already OVERPAYING principals and administrators for the school system now you want teachers to gain bonuses on top of the good money their making please. If you think this would be good and want to bring in the bonuses, fine then let's cut some of the big wigs pay in order to provide them. So let's say that the principal that is making $150k plus will now be making $65k to $95k. Let's see how fast and how badly they will want these bonuses for their teachers then.

[John]

How about giving parents bonuses if there kid passes the FCAT. I bet many more would. Better yet, no welfare if you don't attend school, do well, and stay out of trouble. I'd bet we'd see some change that way too.