Fla. Ready to Demand Bonuses Based on Test Scores

Florida education officials are moving ahead with what would be the nation’s most far-reaching plan to tie teacher bonuses to improved student achievement, despite financial uncertainties and opposition from the state teachers’ union.

The plan, which the state school board was expected to approve this week, would mandate that the top 10 percent of Florida teachers for delivering improved student scores on state tests get bonuses of at least 5 percent of their salary, starting next school year.

Ten percent of the teachers whose subjects are not covered by states tests would also receive bonuses under the proposal. But districts have until the 2007-08 school year to determine how those payouts would be made, including what measures of “student learning gains” would be used. The measures, however, must go beyond individual classroom...