Never mind

The Pasco school district has a new message for the Dayspring Academy charter school regarding teacher performance pay funding: Keep it.

"After a lengthy dialogue with the (Florida Department of Education), I have concluded that Dayspring Academy does not need to return any of the MAP funds it distributed to its employees in 2007," chief financial officer Olga Swinson wrote in a letter Thursday to the school's leadership. "Please accept my sincere apology for any confusion related to this misunderstanding."

Swinson had told the charter school's leaders late last week that the school would have to send back the $23,000 of state money it had given to five teachers through the Merit Award Program. That just wasn't the case, though.

No apology needed, said charter co-founder and state Rep. John Legg. "We're all adults. Mistakes happen."

Unfortunately, Legg added, district officials frequently make mistakes when it comes to charter school issues, and then they get peevish when the charter schools challenge them.

"When we approached them for clarification on the issue, they automatically took the position that they were correct," he said. "The only thing we ask is that, if we ask for clarification, people don't get upset that we ask."

See tomorrow's St. Petersburg Times or tampabay.com for the rest of the story.

Use it or lose it

Gov. Crist's proposal to make the unpopular MAP merit-pay plan more, uh, palatable to teachers will get serious consideration in the state House, Rep. Joe Pickens (left), chairman of the House Education Council, tells The Gradebook.

Last week, Crist unveiled a plan to re-distribute MAP money to participating districts, rather than have that money revert back to the state – an obvious attempt to get more teachers to "voluntarily" sign up (see Gradebook post here). Legislative leaders considered that idea last year, but ultimately decided against it, figuring more districts would take MAP for a spin, said Pickens, R-Palatka.

But they didn't. Only eight of Florida's 67 districts have approved MAP plans (see the list here), which means most of the $147.5 million allocated for the program will go unspent. And that has peeved many lawmakers, who thought they had brokered in good faith with teachers unions only to see them dismiss the performance pay plan out of hand.

"I think you see a little bit of frustration," explained Rep. John Legg (right), vice chairman of the House Education Committee, who also supports the reallocation idea. "When STAR was revised into MAP, there was kind of a verbal agreement that this was a good thing. ... I think they turned it into a political issue and said, 'We're not going to do it now.' They went back on their word."

Pickens said budget realities will temper what happens with MAP, but there is a desire to get more districts involved.

"Obviously, we're not going to spend $147 million that we really don't have over 10 districts," he said. "But I do think that in next year's budget we probably are going to fund the rewards at an amount that is greater than just those 10 districts' pro rate share."

- Ron Matus and Jeff Solochek

Crist flexes on teacher bonuses

So much for optional. And so much for Mr. Nice Guy. Last spring, Gov. Crist backed a performance-pay plan that teachers in every district could accept or reject - the Merit Award Program, better known as MAP. And given MAP's heavy reliance on standardized test scores, it was no surprise the overwhelming majority said no. Under that version of MAP, saying no carried no penalties, and the untouched bonus money went back to the state.

But now, Crist wants to make teachers an offer they can't refuse. Under a proposal outlined in the legislative priorities he issued yesterday, teachers can still say no to MAP, but if they do, their district's share of the bonus pie will be re-allocated to teachers in participating districts. In other words, if 10 districts sign up, their teachers get to split the dough that was supposed to go to all 67 districts. (And just to be clear, we're not talking chump change: Crist wants $120 million for MAP this year.)

Clearly, the teachers union is not happy: "I guess this is where he's going to draw a line in the sand," Florida Education Association spokesman Mark Pudlow told The Gradebook today. It's unclear whether lawmakers are lining up, but the Leg's Republican majority has been solidly supportive of merit pay. Said Pudlow: "It's pretty clear that the merit pay direction is the only one that some lawmakers and some political leaders are are going to use to increase salaries, even though we're below the national average."

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Jeb likes student performance pay, too

Say this for the former guv: He doesn't mind controversy. Jeb Bush supported performance pay for teachers while he was in office, and now that he's out of office, he's quietly giving a thumbs up to performance pay for students.

A press release sent out Friday afternoon by Bush's Foundation for Florida’s Future (sorry we didn't mention it sooner; if you can’t tell, it's pretty much all-evolution-all-the-time) congratulates Florida for again posting some of the highest AP participation and passage rates in the country (see Gradebook post here), and then offers a few suggestions on how Florida can do even better, including offering cash bonuses to students.

"Bonuses for student performance have been tested for more than a decade, and results show this type of incentive works," reads the statement from Patricia Levesque, the foundation's executive director. The statement mentions a Dallas program that was started in 1996 to boost AP participation and passage rates, and notes that some other big-city school districts are following suit. (Former Florida Education Commissioner John Winn, a Bush ally, is deeply involved with these efforts at his new gig. See Gradebook post here.)

The Foundation statement offered two other ideas: 1) Removing the $2,000 cap on bonuses for AP teachers (right now, they get $50 for each student who passes an AP test, up to $2,000), and 2) requiring all schools to offer at least four core AP courses (according to the foundation, only half of Florida’s high schools do so).

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

A Jeb program in line for cuts?

Maybe so. The state's budget picture is bad enough that the Legislature might have to look at cutting one of former Gov. Bush's pet programs, the "school recognition money" used to reward schools with high and/or improving FCAT scores, state Rep. Joe Pickens, chairman of the House Education Council, told The Gradebook.

The same goes for other high-profile programs, Pickens said, citing the MAP performance-pay plan; the bonus program for national board-certified teachers; and the teacher LEAD program, which gives teachers about $250 to purchase classroom supplies. "I don’t think anyone's considering the elimination of those," said Pickens, R-Palatka, but "those are certainly the types of things we’ll look at first."

Last year, more than 1,600 Florida schools got $129.3 million in school recognition money.

Pickens wouldn’t use the word "bad" to describe the revenue projections, but he said the likely cuts are "definitely going to be felt." At this point, lawmakers are looking at $2 billion less than last year, which probably means an ed budget that is leaner by several hundred million dollars. "This could be a year where even good legislation is put on hold because we can’t fund it," he said.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Merit pay, smarter kids, happier teachers?

Like they always say, maybe it's the water. Then again, maybe folks in Arkansas designed a teacher merit-pay plan that makes sense (as opposed to what many teachers in Florida think about MAP, son of STAR. See here.)

The latest stats in a multi-year study of Little Rock's Achievement Challenge Pilot Project – which offers teachers bonuses of as much as $11,000 (no, that's not a typo) and does not require them to compete against each other (no, that's not a typo, either) – found that students in the five participating elementary schools scored 9 percentile points higher in language, 6 percentile points higher in reading and nearly 7 percentile points higher in math last year than their peers in schools without merit pay.

On the flip side, a survey found some teachers weren’t as happy with the program this time around (though it's not really clear who's at fault.) To see the latest results, click here. To see the St. Petersburg Times profile on the program, click here. And to see just how happy some of the Little Rock teachers were last year, click here.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Merit pay dies in Hernando

BROOKSVILLE -- Hernando County caught a lucky break this week: the state didn't like its application for a merit-pay plan for teachers.

And with a few quick votes Wednesday, a relieved district and teachers' union dropped the Merit Award Program like a hot potato.

"Both groups voted unanimously not to submit the corrections to the Department of Education to revise the plan, so we’re not going to have that as part of our contract this year," said Barbara Kidder, director of labor relations and professional standards. "MAP is dead."

Under the state plan, up to 25 percent of district teachers would have received a state-funded salary bonus based on student testing and an administrative evaluation.

But Hernando officials reckoned the plan would have cost the district $400,000 or more in local funds to implement, and the Hernando Classroom Teachers' Association union worried that would come out of teacher salaries.

In other words, everyone -- including all five School Board members and the union leadership -- hated it. If not for the complication of an earlier union vote to accept the plan, and a much-regretted board vote to move forward, it never would have gotten this far.

They're not alone. Around two-thirds of Florida's 67 counties, including Pasco and Pinellas, have rejected the plan, according to the Florida School Labor Relations Service.

So when the district received word Monday that its plan had fallen short and needed revisions, there were lots of smiles.

Even Laurie Pellito, the district staffer who labored to pull the district's submission together, was pleased.

"I want to believe that it's finished," she added. "But I haven't started shredding yet."

Pellito plans to keep that big MAP file in a safe place, near her paperwork for Special Teachers Are Rewarded, the state's last attempt at merit pay. When the next plan comes, she'll be ready.

-- Tom Marshall, Times staff writer

MAP - the rules

Lawmakers approved it. Teachers and school districts negotiated plans for it. Then they even tried to convince the Legislature to postpone the Merit Award Program performance bonuses for teachers and principals.

Now along comes the State Board of Education. As the state prepares to approve or reject the few MAP plans it has, the board must implement rules to guide the decisions. And that's what it intends to do tomorrow. Want to see what it has in mind, after several public meetings and comments? Click here. Want to hear the debate? Visit the board's website tomorrow morning to find the webcast.

Performance pay primer

It might not be clear from the passionate rants and raves sometimes, but in our humble opinion, performance pay for teachers is a thorny issue, with compelling pros and cons advanced by thoughtful people from a lot of different perspectives and a lot of different points on the political spectrum. So, in the interest of putting as much useful information as we can in front of Gradebook readers, we though this recent Education Week story (registration required) was as good a summation of the trends and tensions behind performance pay as we've seen.

Just to quote a couple graphs: "The surge of interest in such experimentation is bolstered by research findings that some teachers are far more effective than others in raising student achievement. Compensation changes that reward talented teachers so that they stay in the profession, and encourage ineffective ones to improve or leave, potentially could have a large impact on student learning."

"But despite a growing consensus that compensation systems for teachers need to be altered, said Brad Jupp, a senior academic policy adviser to the superintendent of the Denver public schools and one of the creators of the district's performance-based pay plan, "there's no clear consensus about what the best way to pay people, other than the single-salary schedule, is. We're in that period of time after the old paradigm has gone and before the new paradigm has fully evolved." 

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Unions dumping ‘old ways’?

Local teachers unions are growing more accepting of initiatives that link pay to performance and reduce the influence of teacher seniority in transfer and staffing decisions, according to a report out today from the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights. Among other examples, the report cites union-backed performance-pay plans in Denver and Minneapolis.

It also gives a nod to a provision in Pinellas County that "gives principals more flexibility in picking their staff and creating a school culture conducive to improvement." Such moves will ultimately help disadvantaged kids, says the report, which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "In many of these places, organization by community leaders, educators and parents served as the catalyst for change," it says. "In the end, however, change was made possible by the willingness of union leaders to abandon old ways and advocate reform." Read more here.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Down goes MAP, down goes MAP

Drumroll please ... And the final tally for district acceptance or rejection of the MAP performance-pay plan is ... 21 yes, 46 no.

Well, that's not exactly final, but it's close, with the numbers coming to The Gradebook compliments of Max Schmidt, executive director of the Florida School Labor Relations Service, which surveyed every district. (Click here to see the tally by district.) Yesterday was the deadline for districts to submit MAP plans to the Department of Education, but since DOE officials could not provide The Gradebook with totals Tuesday we turned to other sources.

Schmidt noted some districts still have not come to an agreement on MAP with their local unions, so by the time the dust clears there might be even more districts in the nay column. Meanwhile, the Florida Education Association scores it 13 for MAP, 48 against, six undecided. Either way, a knockout for teachers, no?

So what happened? Last spring, in response to a tsunami of teacher fury, lawmakers asked teachers, principals, superintendents and other education stakeholders to give their input on a new performance pay plan to replace the last one, STAR. The result: Lawmakers earned kudos from the teachers union and others for setting a more inclusive tone; the fury spawned by STAR vanished; and MAP was born. But, if lawmakers got input from teachers, why is MAP now so full of arrows? And if teachers hate MAP so much, where was the outrage during the session?

A weekend interview with ...

... Lynne Webb, president of the United School Employees of Pasco. The union recently rejected participation in the state's teacher performance pay plan, becoming the 30th district to do so. Webb spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about performance pay, and why teachers seem so opposed to it.

Why do you think teachers are so opposed to performance pay?

Well, I don't think that teachers are opposed to performance pay, and would not want anyone to misconstrue or interpret this vote as a vote against performance pay. I believe this vote was against the MAP (Merit Award Program) iteration of performance pay.

So what is wrong with MAP?

Well, I think that there were a number of things that teachers had concerns about. First of all, I think part of it has to with timing. It came of the heels of a failed E-Comp plan that the DOE tried to foist upon teachers, which then got turned into STAR, which then got modified again into MAP. So I think it's really hard for teachers to separate MAP from these other plans which had been ill thought out. And MAP truly is very very similar to the components of STAR. It had some modifications and some slight improvements. But it  still had very unrealistic time lines. Teachers were being asked to vote on something that would take effect, in a sense, before they had ever even voted on it. Because it applied to this whole school year. And it involved certain types of exams that teachers haven't had any exposure to, the validity of which haven't been tested, and we don't even have those exams in Pasco County yet. So I think there was a concern about rushing headlong into something teachers didn't feel comfortable with. ...

What about the teachers who we heard in public comments saying, 'Don't pit me against my colleagues. Pay me what I'm worth instead.'?

I think that also is an issue for teachers. I do believe that's a broader issue than just with MAP. I think the timing of MAP when we're in a revenue shortfall just exacerbated those concerns. ... We haven't been able to negotiate the pay raise yet because nobody knows what the financial situation is going to be like. So I think teachers may be afraid that the Legislature is going to latch onto this to give some raises, but not provide raises for all teachers.

Pasco board rejects MAP, too

One day after Pasco's teachers voted down their proposed performance pay plan, their School Board unanimously joined them.

Board members said they like the idea of rewarding teachers for excellence, but deemed the state's Merit Award Program a poor way to accomplish that goal.

"I do believe in merit pay. But that pay has to encourage collaboration and lift our teachers up in a way different than this," vice chairwoman Kathryn Starkey said. "I don't think that this plan is it. I didn't have one teacher come up to me and say, 'This is a good plan, please vote  for it.' I had the opposite."

The board did ask the administration and teachers to consider returning to the bargaining table, to try to find a way to claim the state's bonus money - about $3.6-million was allocated for the county this year - in coming years.

"It's coming," board member Allen Altman said of teacher performance pay. "There needs to be a set plan to work together in good faith ... so our employees can get those dollars."

To see yesterday's post on the teachers' vote, click here.

Pasco teachers reject performance pay

Once again, Pasco's classroom teachers have turned down the opportunity to claim bonuses of about $2,100 from the state. The United School Employees of Pasco has joined a growing number of colleagues across Florida in refusing to participate in the Merit Award Plan, which would give extra pay to 25 percent of teachers based on their students' performance and their job evaluations. (To see the plan, see this past post.)

Two-thirds of the union's nearly 5,000 teachers cast ballots on the proposed agreement. Of those, 76 percent rejected the deal. Pasco teachers voted down participation in the Special Teachers Are Rewarded plan that preceded MAP, too.

"What's remarkable is that during a time when the district is facing funding cutbacks and teacher raises are on hold, the teachers put their principles ahead of their pocketbooks and said, 'We can't be bought,'" USEP president Lynne Webb said in a news release. She added that the vote affirms teachers' opinion that performance pay is no substitute for adequate pay. (To read the full release, click here.)

The Pasco School Board is scheduled to vote on the performance pay agreement tomorrow. It could impose the deal on the teachers if it wants to claim the $3.5-million the state has set aside for the bonuses. Board vice chairwoman Kathryn Starkey, who led the charge to reject the STAR plan, told the Gradebook that she hasn't decided what to do this time.

"In my opinion, Sen. Gaetz and the Legislature made great improvements with the MAP plan," Starkey said, noting teachers can be evaluated in teams, and administrators are included. "I have to look into this."

Merit-pay rumble in D.C.

Maybe it's no surprise that a couple of education heavyweights went at it over teacher performance pay this week, but it probably is a surprise, especially here in Florida, that Democratic U.S. Rep. George Miller (left) is in the corner that favors it. Miller chairs the House education committee; is one of the architects of No Child Left Behind; and is lefty enough to be called a "liberal Democratic lion" by the San Francisco Chronicle. You'd think, given Florida teacher frustration with STAR, MAP and merit-pay in general, that somebody like Miller would be on their side, no?

But no. According to a Sept. 12 Associated Press account, Miller criticized Reg Weaver (right), the president of the National Education Association, for rejecting a merit-pay proposal that's included in the draft of an updated No Child. The proposal says outstanding teachers should be able to get bonuses worth up to $10,000, based in part on student test scores. To see the AP story, click here. To see the New York Times  story that also references the exchange, click here . And to read up on Miller's recent visit to Tampa with U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, click here.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Pasco reaches tentative MAP plan

While Hillsborough teachers are collecting their performance pay bonuses (see post), Pasco teachers will be getting their first look at what a Merit Award Plan system could look like for them.

The United School Employees of Pasco and the district administration reached a tentative MAP agreement late Thursday, which would direct $3-million to about 25 percent of Pasco teachers at the end of next year. (To see the plan, click here.) The School Board and the teachers still must approve the plan before a state-imposed Oct. 1 deadline.

"Really, the most important thing there is that this plan gives the teachers the choice whether they want to be assessed under the MAP plan as individuals or as members of an instructional team," USEP lead negotiator Jim Ciadella tells the Gradebook.

Without that provision, which was not part of the performance pay plan that teachers and the School Board rejected in the spring, the deal likely wouldn't have gotten off the table, Ciadella said.

Who got merit pay in Hillsborough?

So who got the money? Click here to download the complete list of the more than 4,600 educators in Hillsborough who received about $2,100 in their paychecks today through the state's Merit Award Program.

We understand that some teachers would prefer that we not post their names. However, we at the Gradebook decided there was a compelling public interest in giving parents and educators the opportunity to learn which teachers received performance pay, as they are supposed to be the ones who got the best results from their students.

Performance pay certainly is contentious. Click here to see past Gradebook discussions on the matter. But it also appears here to stay, as Congress is looking into including the idea in No Child Left Behind, and state lawmakers have no willingness to compromise the program even with budget cuts looming. We're simply reporting on who is getting the money.

Currently, we have only the names. As soon as we receive it, we will post an updated list that also shows school sites.

Don't be looking for a similar list in Pinellas or Pasco, though. Pinellas teachers decided not to participate in MAP, while Pasco teachers have not voted on a plan yet.

Getting closer all the time

Pasco teachers, who overwhelmingly rejected performance pay in the spring, could get a second chance to take a stand as early as next week. And this time, one of the key stumbling blocks to approval appears to have disappeared.

The United School Employees of Pasco has gained what lead negotiator Jim Ciadella called "significant change" over whether teachers should be evaluated individually or as teams during talks with the administration last week. Teachers wanted some flexibility here, as the district's philosophy focuses on educators working together with students who move between their classrooms.

Terry Rhum, the district's lead negotiator, told the Gradebook he believed the sides could reach a final agreement as early as the end of this week (though talks have not been scheduled). The School Board and teachers union would get to vote afterward. If the district is to participate in the state's Merit Award Program, it must submit a plan by Oct. 1.

For more Gradebook coverage of performance pay, click here.

Protect performance pay

Teachers, finance officers, superintendents and school boards across Florida have urged lawmakers to postpone implementing the new Merit Award Program, which would give bonuses to teachers based on student performance. They say delaying the $150-million program makes sense, given the state's $1.5-billion budget crunch.

The State Board of Education disagrees.

"We would like to have that be off the table as far as budget cuts," said board member Kathleen Shanahan (left), who won her colleagues' support to send that message to the Governor's Office and the Legislature.

She offered an alternative way to boost revenue for schools instead - more Lotto games. "The lottery is a significant opportunity," Shanahan said. "If there is anything to be done as far as a new game, ratchet it up. It is for K-12... It is something I would definitely put it on the governor's agenda."

"We'll make sure that is communicated," Commissioner Blomberg told the board.

Not what they expected

Salary talks are on hold. No one knows how state budget cuts will shake out. Yet the Oct. 1 deadline for school districts to submit performance pay plans to the Department of Education remains. Several school boards and education organizations have urged lawmakers to postpone implementation of the Merit Award Program, but the feedback has not been encouraging yet.

With this as a backdrop, teachers have been negotiating details of the plan. Some have said they simply don't want to participate. That's allowed. But, it seems, it's the only real point of flexibility in the plan that was touted as the more open-minded version of the reviled Special Teachers Are Rewarded system it replaced in the spring.

"What we're finding is MAP doesn't have as much flexibility as originally thought," Lynne Webb, United School Employees of Pasco president, told the Pasco School Board.

She noted that the program would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement, beyond the actual bonuses, and said that uncertainty remains whether teachers would approve the plan anyway.

Count on this to become a hot issue during the special session, which begins Sept. 18.

Does the public like merit pay for teachers?

It seems clear that many Florida teachers dislike the idea of performance pay – just look at the outcry over STAR and MAP – but the public might have a different view. A recent national survey found 45 percent of the public thinks a teacher's salary should depend in part on students' academic progress, while 31 percent didn't think so and 24 percent didn't have an opinion. (The survey didn't say how academic progress would be measured, which of course is part of the rub. Throw the word "FCAT" into the question, and support would probably tumble into the negatives.)

The survey, co-directed by researchers at Harvard, Brown University and the University of Chicago, also found teachers and the general public aren't marching in lockstep when it comes to No Child Left Behind. Some 42 percent of current and former public school employees surveyed support the renewal of No Child with little or no changes, while 57 percent of the public does. Public support is even higher, at 71 percent, if the words "federal legislation" are substituted for the words "No Child Left Behind." Could it be that the public has a dimmer view of No Child because journalists so often describe it as the centerpiece of President Bush's education agenda, as opposed to a law that passed Congress in 2002 with widespread, bipartisan support?

To see the survey results and an accompanying article in Education Next magazine, click here.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Merit pay heats up

As Florida's school finance folks talk about delaying the implementation of the new Merit Award Program, it's perhaps instructive to note that they're not exactly on the winning end of this debate. NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a possible presidential candidate, is touting performance pay on a national level. So, too, for that matter, are political leaders from all sides, Education Week reports.

Yet the issue is not without its downside, or the implementation without flaws, as the Orlando Sentinel has revealed over the past few days. There have been problems with the year-end tests geared to evaluate teachers, and with the calculations over how much the teachers should get.

Meanwhile, some districts, including Pasco and Pinellas, have refused to participate at all.

Still, at least one powerful Florida lawmaker has indicated an unwillingness to even postpone the state's new $150-million program, saying such a move would reward mediocrity while punishing excellence. The movement's direction should become even more clear when the Florida Legislature meets in September to figure out exactly how to trim the budget. Stay tuned.

What to cut?

How about the state's new teacher performance pay program? Sure, it took more than a year to create a law that had buy-in from most of the players. And yes, the governor likes the concept so much that he's talked about expanding it.

But as Florida's 67 school finance directors scour their budgets to make an expected 4 percent revenue cut workable, they're looking to the $150-million allocation as a logical one to kill for now. It hasn't taken effect yet, so it won't even be missed, they reason. A group of the money folks will propose putting the funds back into the general education budget when they meet with deputy commissioner Linda Champion on Friday.

"That is what everybody is saying," said Pasco chief finance officer Olga Swinson, who will make the trip to Tallahassee."That is one we are really going to recommend."

Crist, the FCAT, STAR and MAP

Okay, maybe it's us. Maybe The Gradebook is wrong. But if so, please set us straight so we quit having these fits about Gov. Crist and his description of the state's now-dead performance pay plan for teachers, the Special Teachers Are Rewarded (better known as STAR), and the Merit Award Program (better known as MAP) that replaced it.

Time and again, Crist has said he supports a plan that is not based on a test alone, and not based on the FCAT alone. The most recent example: Crist told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, for a piece that ran Friday, that the new MAP plan is different (and, he implies, better) because "teachers are not rewarded just on the basis of (FCAT results) anymore, and that's a key change from where we were just a year ago." Crist is consistent in his wording: In his State of the State speech in March, he promised a new merit pay plan "will not be based on a test alone." And in May, when the session ended, Crist had a handwritten note listing his priorities for the session and a checkmark next to "Teacher Pay (NOT TEST.)"

The problem is, STAR was never based on a test alone. And the new plan, MAP, puts as much if not more emphasis on standardized testing as STAR. Rightly or wrongly, STAR required standardized testing (including but not limited to the FCAT) to be the primary factor in determining a teacher bonus, and the Department of Education interpreted that to mean at least 50 percent. MAP, on the other hand, says standardized tests (including but not limited to the FCAT) must be 60 percent. Is that better?

When asked about the governor's position, Crist's office said in May that the new plan is better because it prevents districts from putting more emphasis on standardized tests in the future - something that potentially could happen under STAR, although The Gradebook is hard-pressed to recall anybody else in the STAR/MAP debate ever advancing that argument. (For more detail about all this, see this St. Pete Times story.)

Hundreds upon hundreds of angry teachers e-mailed Crist's office in the days leading up to the session to complain about STAR. But since Crist signed off on MAP, the fury has gone. Have teachers been pacified by misleading words?

Teacher incentives for Hillsborough

The Hillsborough school district, which was the first Florida district to adopt the state's (now defunct) STAR performance pay plan, today became one of four in Florida to tap into a national program designed to reward effective teachers and principals. The USDOE announced that Hillsborough will get $3.1-million next year, and about $15.4-million over five years, through President Bush's Teacher Incentive Fund. The money will go to the district's Performance Optimized With Effective Rewards program, serving 116 high-needs schools. Lake, Orange and Miami-Dade counties also got awards, along with 14 others outside Florida. For more information, see the DOE press release.

And the winner is ...

  A majority of St. Pete Times readers are apparently on the chincy side. At least the ones who respond to our readers' poll. On Monday, in connection with a story on student performance pay, The Times asked: "If the state were to reward students for passing the FCAT, how much should the prize be?"

The result: 14 percent said $500, 32 percent said $1,000 and 53 percent said … (drumroll please) … a measly $100. (Puh-leeze! As one ninth grader told The Times for the story, she makes more than that babysitting). Of course, this was a far cry from a scientific poll. The Times only offered three different responses. Only 161 votes were cast. And it didn't ask a perhaps more important question - which is, is there public support for student performance pay, period? Anybody care to weigh in?

-Ron Matus, state education reporter

You can't always get what you want

Gov. Crist signed the new state budget this morning, finalizing a 6.65 percent increase in per-pupil funding and $147.5 million for teacher bonuses. The total budget is $71.5 billion, and public schools get $24.4 billion of that. But in the end, Crist had to settle for less. He got half of what he wanted for teacher bonuses, $500 million less for class-size reduction (the final budget includes $3.3 billion for it) and $20 million less for more reading coaches (the state will get 80 more instead of 400 more.) "This is a tight budget year," Crist said in a press release, "and we must live within our means, just as the people of Florida must live within theirs."

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

(Photo of Gov. Crist signing a different bill, from the State of Florida)

Give them the money

Hillsborough teachers have voted resoundingly to accept the state's new performance pay plan. The Merit Award Program won the approval of 75 percent of the nearly 2,500 teachers who voted. Hillsborough estimates that one-third to half of its almost 15,000 teachers could qualify for the additional pay this year.

But don't confuse the strong show of support with an approval rating, warns Hillsborough teachers union president Jean Clements. "Most teachers are not completely satisfied - neither am I - but thought it was the only way to get that money into the district and into the pockets of teachers," she said. "It was worth a shot."

She said Hillsborough is receiving $10.8 million in state funding for the program, although it remains to be seen how far the money in rewards for the county's teachers. The MAP program replaced the much maligned STAR program, short for Special Teachers Are Rewarded. Standardized test scores play a large role in determining performance pay in both plans. Hillsborough was one of the first districts to send a STAR plan to the state. The district also has an internal performance pay plan.

- Letitia Stein, Hillsborough County education reporter

Kriseman: Down with STAR, down with MAP

A recent St. Pete Times story on Florida's new performance pay plan for teachers noted all 40 state senators voted for it back in March. But the story neglected to point out that four lone state reps (out of 120) bucked their colleagues, and among the holdouts was St. Petersburg Democrat Rick Kriseman.

In a floor speech before the vote, Kriseman said the bill that came out of the House 21st Century Competitiveness Committee (of which he is a member) was a big improvement over the then-existing plan, STAR. Unfortunately, he told his fellow reps, that proposal had since morphed into something he could not vote for: "Unlike the committee bill, which did not require a specific percentage of the evaluation to be based on a test score, this bill takes that flexibility away from the local districts." The recent Times story noted that despite a spate of misleading media coverage, the new performance pay plan - MAP - actually puts as much if not more emphasis on standardized testing than STAR. Whether that's good or not may be a question for another news story and another post in The Gradebook; but it's certainly not what most Florida teachers wanted. To read the entirety of Kriseman's speech, click here. To watch him give it, click here.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Here comes the new STAR, same as the old STAR?

It hasn't been a week since the legislative session ended, but some lawmakers are already having second thoughts about the one of the biggest education issues they tackled. State Sen. Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami, was one of 40 senators who unanimously voted in March for a new performance-pay plan.

Even though the new plan put even more emphasis on standardized testing than the much-despised STAR initiative - we know: all the newspapers said otherwise; they were wrong - Bullard told The Gradebook she held her nose and voted for it anyways because she thought there'd at least be more funding for it. But that didn't happen.

At the end of the day, the Legislature allocated $147 million for the new plan - the same amount it gave to STAR last year. That means it's unclear whether more than 25 percent of Florida's teachers will end up getting bonuses, which is one of the main reasons so many of them opposed STAR. "How are we going to increase the number of teachers (getting bonuses) if we don't have the money?" said Bullard, a member of the Senate education committee. "If I'm sounding angry right now, I am. I'm a little frustrated."

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Today's news

FAMU FINANCES: Lawmakers reverse themselves to allow Florida A&M to retain financial control over the engineering school it shares with Florida State. But a bill moving ahead in the Senate would require stricter oversight of FAMU's money situation. The university also responds to its latest audit findings.

NOT ENOUGH TIME: Pasco County teachers and the School Board decide to pass on a second chance to grab $3.5-million from the state for teacher performance pay bonuses. Though the new Merit Award Program is better than STAR, they say, its May 1 deadline to submit a plan for this year is too soon.

ALL FOR SHOW: Outnumbered House Democrats propose rolling back required local tax effort for schools to 2005 levels. They were trying to make the point that the GOP-dominated Legislature has balanced the education budget on the shoulders of local taxpayers. Their move failed.

$1 AT A TIME: Senators approve a bill that would use taxes on slot machine revenue to support the Florida Prepaid scholarship fund.

PLANNING FOR HIGH SCHOOL: Hernando County eighth graders have begun choosing their majors, a new state requirement.

SETTING A BAD EXAMPLE: On the football field, Vernon J. Hobbs of Tampa was one of Blake High's stars. He had a stack of recruiting letters from colleges. He probably won't be going. Hobbs and three classmates stand accused of a violent crime spree, which they helped document on their own MySpace pages.

NO FUNDING SHIFT: Lawmakers from south Florida failed to change the school finance formula that they say benefits north and central Florida, the Palm Beach Post reports.

FORGET SCHOOL THEATER: A group of Connecticut high school students whose principal canceled their self-penned play on Iraq are headed to off-Broadway to perform their work, the NY Times reports.

Teachers: Bring on performance pay

Yes, you read that headline right.

Despite all the frothing over Florida’s ill-fated STAR plan - and the puzzled pause that seems to have greeted its successor - some teachers say performance pay is not only good, but necessary. “We boldly state that our students deserve a new teacher-compensation system,” says a report released this morning by the Center for Teacher Quality.

More hot air from a gaggle of think-tankers? Hardly. The center's report was written by 18 teachers from across the country, including Susan Bischoff, a fifth grade teacher at Ballard Elementary in Manatee County. The current salary system, the teachers write, is as outdated as 'the dusty blackboards still found in some school classrooms." Should teachers get paid more? Of course they should, the teachers say. But they should get paid differently, too. Under a plan they envision, teachers in Raleigh, N.C. - which includes that state's brainy, high-tech Research Triangle - could earn up to $130,000 a year. To read more, click here.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Today's news

DONE HAULING KIDS: Retired school buses still can haul, though. Just ask Robbie Aaron, who buys them up and races them at the Bronson Motor Speedway. Watch the action by clicking here.

DONE HELPING KIDS: Retired college computers still can help crime fighting. St. Petersburg College is donating about 1,000 obsolete computers to law enforcement agencies in Guatemala.

FAMU UPDATE: New president James Ammons pledges fiscal integrity and accountability are his top priorities as he takes the helm. There's a lively conversation on FAMU going on here. Meanwhile, the Tallahassee Democrat reports that lawmakers will give financial control of FAMU's College of Engineering to nearby Florida State University.

STAR, MAP, WHATEVER: Pasco County teachers aren't really interested in rushing into a new performance pay plan. They'd rather take some time, do it right. District officials hope to grab the state cash, and prepare to begin negotiations next week. Gov. Crist signed the new performance pay law yesterday. Texas lawmakers, by contrast, rejected a statewide performance pay law, moving instead to put more money into teacher raises, the Dallas Morning News reports.

FROM THE EDITORIAL PAGE: Lawmakers' engage in "doublespeak" as they defend their plans for public school funding and property taxes, the editorial board says.

FIX CHARTERS: Looks like lawmakers read the Orlando Sentinel's investigative project about charter schools. The Sentinel now reports that education committee leaders are calling for fixes.

GETTING IN IS HARD TO DO: Harvard College rejected 91 percent of applicants this year, its highest rate ever, Bloomberg News reports.

NOT WITH THEIR PAPERS: The anti-plagiarism company Turnitin uses a vast database of student writings to help schools and colleges determine if students are cheating on their papers. A group of students from Virginia and Arizona are suing, saying they never gave the company permission to use their work, the Washington Post reports.

Crist signs teacher bonus plan

TALLAHASSEE - Invoking the name of his fifth grade teacher at Bay Vista Elementary in St. Petersburg, Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday signed into law the new teacher bonus plan that replaces the controversial one passed last year under former Gov. Jeb Bush.

"We're going to pay teachers more," said Crist, beaming as he addressed the packed Cabinet room filled with lawmakers, teachers and education lobbyists. "And we're going to do it in a way that's different from last year. That's important."

The bonuses would go to the "top" teachers and administrators in each participating school district, and would be between 5 and 10 percent of the average district teacher pay. An educator's evaluation would be based at least 60 percent on students' work on tests such as FCAT or a locally created test, and up to 40 percent on performance such as maintaining classroom discipline.

There's $147.5-million in this year's budget for the program, but Crist wants to double that next year. The Senate budget keeps the budget at $147.5-million, and the House proposes spending about $200-million.

Read more in Friday's St. Petersburg Times.

- Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler, higher education reporter

Not now

Pasco County's teachers union, which overwhelmingly rejected participation in Special Teachers Are Rewarded, isn't showing much interest in jumping into the new Merit Award Program, either. Leaders worry that they just don't have enough time to negotiate a performance pay plan by the May 1 deadline that differs much from the STAR proposal that 87 percent of teachers thumped less than a month ago.

"I'm not sure if tweaking a plan that was so resoundingly rejected would fly with the teachers. I'm not sure that it would even fly with the School Board," United School Employees of Pasco president Lynne Webb told the Gradebook. "I will tell you that the overwhelming consensus in each focus group (of the group's building representatives) and when the groups were brought back together was the USEP should not revisit STAR or any other performance pay plan this late in the school year."

School district officials, meanwhile, have said they want to at least pursue a proposal, which would qualify Pasco for $3.5-million in bonus money for teachers. "I really want to get my teachers the money," said assistant superintendent Renalia DuBose, who is working to call a special board meeting to discuss negotiation strategy next week. "The Legislature is making changes and we are bound by law to present those to them. ... We'll put it on the table and they can say no and that's fine. But we're going to go through the process."

For their part, board members say they want to hear everything before weighing in. "I wish everybody would keep an open mind until we have a plan in place," vice chairwoman Kathryn Starkey said.

Today's news

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM: A casual encounter between two Largo teachers escalates into a heated spat that ends up going to the state and back before landing on the superintendent's desk. Superintendent Clayton Wilcox is not amused.

EVALUATING MAP: Citrus County schools came up with a workable teacher performance pay plan under STAR months ago. As leaders consider the plan that will replace STAR, they're not sure whether they will participate. Brevard schools wonder whether the new plan will really make a difference for the best teachers, Florida Today reports.

BIGGER DIGS: The popular Curtis Fundamental School in Dunedin is moving, a change that will allow the school to open 80 new seats.

WHAT LUNSFORD ACT? The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind allowed convicted felons to do construction work on the residential campus, the Associated Press reports. The school's president said the kids were OK.

TRACKING ALTERNATIVES: If there's a loophole in Florida's A-Plus plan, it's alternative schools, where kids go but accountability doesn't follow. The Palm Beach Post reports that some lawmakers are looking at ways to better track the progress that students make at these campuses.

IS IT REALLY AP? The College Board is requiring teachers to prove by June 1 that the courses they offer meet Advanced Placement standards, the Washington Post reports.

Today's news

THE TROUBLE WITH TOILETS: Kids stuff them with paper, scrawl graffiti on the walls, sometimes have sex there. And then they wonder why school officials try to control access to the restrooms.

CRIST TO SIGN: The governor says he's pleased with the new Merit Award Program that lawmakers overwhelmingly approved this week. Here's the Miami Herald version of the story.

PRIVATE FEEL, PUBLIC SCHOOL: Students and parents who don't want to get lost in the crowd of a super-sized public high school are taking a close look at 300-student Brooks-DeBartolo Collegiate High School, a charter school that opens in the fall.

KIDS ARE JUST KIDS: Even if they're in high school. So says the newest high school principal in Hillsborough County.

SCHOOL JANITOR ARRESTED: For inappropriately touching an 11-year-old girl at a Clearwater school. Enough said.

WHAT A LESSON: Some Palm Beach County students studying marine biology in the keys make a detour to save three stranded fishermen, the Palm Beach Post reports.

WHEN YOU THINK YOUR BOARD IS BAD ... Just think about this guy. The Orange County, Calif., school board member goes on about conspiracy theories, refuses to participate in many votes and discussions, and generally makes himself disliked to the point where parents are trying to remove him, the LA Times reports.

STAR out, MAP in

The Florida House overwhelmingly joined the Senate today in replacing the controversial STAR teacher performance pay plan with the Merit Award Program, or MAP. Several Democrats used the debate to advocate for increased teacher salaries across the board. But they agreed to support the bill as a preferable alternative to the vilified STAR plan. "We have turned the train around and we are heading in a new direction," said Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Pembroke Park, who noted he received 2,000 e-mails urging repeal of STAR. Rep. Joe Pickens, chairman of the Schools and Learning Council, said the legislation got rid of the overly prescriptive regulations from the Department of Education and replaced them with more local control, finally creating a long-needed and acceptable system that rewards teachers for their skills rather than their longevity. "Merit pay is something that should have been in place a long time ago," he said. "A fifth-year teacher that does a great job is entitled to more money for doing that great job. ... And the teacher that wants to come in and punch the clock ... will get the pay they deserve." The final vote was 110-4.

Today's news

CALL IT 'MAP' NOW: Senators move to replace the controversial Special Teachers Are Rewarded performance pay plan with a compromise Merit Award Program. The House is slated to act on the plan today. Other states are noticing the debate - the Houston Chronicle's blog School Zone picked up the Times' recent story of teachers who voted against STAR and titled its entry 'And you thought Houston teachers hate merit pay.'

PROMISE TO PROTECT: Members of the Legislature's black caucus say they won't let Florida A&M University, the state's beleaguered historically black university,  go down in flames over mismanagement and money problems. Click here for more.

VENTURE INTO DEGREES: Citrus County high school students already can take dual enrollment courses that count toward a college degree. Now the school district is exploring creation of an academy at its technical institute that would offer degrees itself.

FROM THE EDITORIAL PAGES: Citrus school officials need to reassert what constitutes proper behavior, in the wake of recent teen sexcapades that a bus driver watched but did not report, the editorial board says.

NOT TIGGER, TOO: Six students sue the Napa Valley, Calif., school district for its "unconstitutionally vague" dress code. One of the girls got in trouble for wearing socks with Tigger - Winnie the Pooh's friend - on them, the New York Times reports.

SODAS STILL SELLING: School districts are finding it hard to get sugary sodas out of their vending machines because of tight contracts (like ones most Tampa Bay area district have with Coke or Pepsi), despite promises by beverage companies to limit their sales, the Washington Post reports.

NO HYPOCRISY HERE: The superintendent of highly rated Fairfax, Va., schools stands firm against the culture of NCLB, even when facing the loss of millions in federal funding. Check out this Washington Post column about Jack Dale.

Performance pay update

Top teachers are poised to get bonuses of around $2,000 or more, following the Senate's passage Wednesday of a new merit pay plan (SB 1226) to replace the controversial program adopted last year under Jeb Bush. The Senate unanimously approved the Merit Award Program, which replaces the contentious Special Teachers are Rewarded (STAR) program. (For more details, click here.) The House is expected to pass the $147.5-million measure today. It would then go to the governor, who supports the merit pay so much, he wants to double the state money available next year — to $295-million. Not everyone was thrilled with the bill. "I don't see how you can go into a school and determine which teachers would benefit from a school's grade improving," said Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami. "I think we should treat our teachers the same. This is something that is going to cause a lot of problems in our schools even though it is a step in the right direction." But all agreed in the end that the proposal is better than what the state had before. Sponsor Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, quoted U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen to close the debate: "When everyone is equally dissatisfied justice has been done." "I think we've done better than that," Gaetz said. "It gives us a way forward, a way forward which we can amend and improve over time."

- Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler

Today's news

SHE WANTED NEW HUBCAPS: But Pinellas County teacher of the year Sherry Brock could not make herself vote for a performance bonus under STAR. She and some of the other teachers who overwhelmingly rejected more pay on principle explain why they stood together against the system, which is now being rewritten.

CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION SOUGHT: Lawmakers call for an investigation into Florida A&M University as they review an audit report showing millions of dollars unaccounted for.

BUT DOES HE CLEAN UP AFTERWARD? Crystal River High senior Joshua Dawson won a regional battle of the chefs with his sauteed chicken in basil sauce, and now heads to Dallas to compete, Iron Chef style,