I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report.
Last month, the Florida Board of Education approved a program that will link
increases in teachers's pay to improvements in students test scores.
The program will take effect next school year. It increases a teacher's pay
if his or her students increase their scores on the Florida Comprehensive
Assessment Test. The test measures reading and mathematics knowledge. It is now
used to decide if students will pass to the next grade level. The state gives
extra money to schools whose scores are good or have increased from the year
before. Normally, the money is divided among the school workers.
The new program requires all school districts in the state to list the top
ten percent of teachers in each subject area. These teachers will receive an
increase of five percent in their yearly pay. For an average teacher, that would
be about two thousand dollars.
Those who teach reading and mathematics will be judged on the test scores
only. That is, how much their students have improved since the year before. But
those who teach other subjects like geography, art and music will have to be
judged differently. State officials say they will develop a system to do
this.
Florida is not the only state with a plan to link teacher pay
and student performance. Schools in Texas, Colorado and Minnesota have similar
programs. But not all of them link pay with test scores alone.
Teacher groups around the country generally oppose such programs. They say it
is not fair to judge teachers by how well students score on a test. They say
many things affect a student's test scores, such as learning problems or lack of
sleep. They also say that there are other ways to judge strengths and weaknesses
of students.
Some teachers say the quality of teaching will decrease if teachers are
forced to compete with each other for money and praise. They fear that teachers
will refuse to work in schools where many children have learning problems or do
not speak English well.
Those who support the new pay programs say teachers must be judged the way
other professionals are by the results of their work. And they say that using
student test scores is a true measure of a teacher's
performance.