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I see no problem with Florida's merit pay plan. They want to use a child's test score from the previous year and compare it to the same child's current test score. There is a base line staring point.

It seems that Florida is using a scale of 100-500. So, if little Billy scored 347 in 4th grade and then scored the same or higher in 5th grade, you can tell that Billy's 5th grade teacher taught Billy a full year's worth of 5th grade skills.

If Billy was the smartest kid in 4th grade and scored a 499, but only got a 378 in 5th grade you know that his fifth grade teacher didn't teach him enough.

if Billy is the class dunce, and his test the following year went up the teacher did her job, even if he started below average and is still below average.

As long as the merit pay is based on each student's score the merit pay is beneficial. You can then track how well a teacher is imparting knowledge in a tested subject. If a whole class has there test scores drop, the teacher is no good or the curriculum is horrid. If a couple scores fall, well that can be attribute to those kids. If the whole class improves, instead of staying the same, you have got a great teacher or a great curriculum and should try to replicate it in other classrooms.

Hard to say from the article how progress is being evaluated when judging teacher performance.

For example

“...it checks to see if a student has acquired a year's worth of knowledge, as determined by the FCAT achievement…

leaves it unclear if a teacher is eligible for a bonus if a student is performing below grade level; for example is a teacher rewarded at all for bringing a 6th grader up 18 months in tested level in a year if they are still reading at the 5th grade level?

Or, is there adjustment for the difficulty of the task?

Teachers at schools like Snively, a high-poverty school with 89 percent of its students qualified for free or reduced-price lunches, can't possibly compete for the bonuses against teachers at magnet schools, said Viola Frazier, a third-grade Snively teacher.”

IMO it’s quite possible that bringing a student reading at far below grade level at a “Snively” type school up half a grade level in a year is more of a teaching accomplishment than producing a full year's improvement in a student starting the the term at grade level at a school with more stringent entry requirements.

" see no problem with Florida's merit pay plan. They want to use a child's test score from the previous year and compare it to the same child's current test score. There is a base line staring point." Then I don't have a problem with it either. How shocking that the article doesn't make that clear. Obviously if a kid or a group of kids' test scores drop from one year to the next the teacher is not doing a good job. If they go up she is, and if they go up more than any other class does she's doing a great job. And I don't have a problem with rewarding anyone for doing a great job. Anyone who is really TRYING to do a great job shouldn't mind either. I've bever understood the concept that it's bad to "teach to the test". If teaching to the test means kids learn how to read and write better maybe it's not a bad thing. Conversely, if teachers were doing a good job they wouldn't HAVE to teach to the test. If kids can't pass basic math and reading tests than whatever methods are being used obviously aren't working.