- May 4, 2024
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Performance-based pay had a strong first year, according to Stewart Maxcy. Next up: performance pay for principals.
Behind Race to the Top Director Stewart Maxcy’s desk chair, on the third floor of the Government Services Building, is a giant whiteboard covered in scribbles. His multicolored notes outline the performance-based pay model he has been working on for the past year.
“It’s a big formula,” he said, nodding and scrunching his eyebrows.
The formula’s district implementation, however, has been smooth, he said. Flagler’s first formalized teacher review should finish by summer. And next up, Maxcy plans to tackle a performance-pay system for principals.
But first, evaluations in Race to the Top’s inaugural field-study have to be completed.
Essentially, teacher evaluation is broken into two realms: observation and student learning gains. But that’s big-picture. In the details, the observation category alone is split into four rubrics containing 36 separately weighted criteria, such as room environment and instructor energy level.
Achievement expectations are also built in: Gifted students may be expected to make 18 months of learning gains in a year, while special-needs students might be expected to make six months’ worth.
“There wasn’t really a pushback,” Maxcy said of the initial teacher reaction to the program. “But they were apprehensive.”
Initially, teachers saw the fates of their salaries tied to a simple FCAT-based scoring structure, he said, but with help from the teachers union in devising the formula and educating staff, that misconception has been erased.
“There’s been more of an understanding, more of a buy-in,” he said. “They know that we still have some tweaking to do.”
Administrators will conduct final evaluations of teachers in March and April.
Teachers are graded on a point scale up to 364, from “highly effective” down to “unsatisfactory.”
“If you don’t make ‘effective’ or ‘highly effective,’ your salary doesn’t change,” Maxcy said.
Performance pay will take effect in 2014. Teachers hired prior to July 11, 2011, however, have the option to remain in the step system, with raises tied to time on the job. But there’s a catch.
Performance-based raises are larger than traditional step raises. And according to state law, districts must allocate performance raises first. If there’s any money left, step raises can then be distributed.
“With this system, I don’t care if you’re a first-year teacher or a 30-year teacher,” Maxcy said, “you’re going to get a higher rate than the highest step.”
He cited a movie called “Teachers,” in which an old, tenured instructor would hand out daily worksheets and then sit at his desk with the newpaper until the bell rang. He “rested on his laurels,” Maxcy said, “because he knew he’d get a raise just for breathing.”
Race to the Top, in part, is an effort to fight that mentality. “We put together teams of teachers, with the union president and vice president,” he explained. “And we built an evaluation system that was valid and reliable and fair to teachers; and, yeah, rigorous in its standards.”
He pulled out a 1.5-inch binder. “One of these is filled out for every teacher,” he said, flipping through to reveal rubric after rubric, all of which are scored by a principal. Principals have also been trained to achieve standardization in scoring practices.
So far, Maxcy cites a 90% “reliability and validity” measure among all principals.
Teachers also have access to all rubrics and scores, so they can clarify and correct any areas of concern before final reviews.
“The evaluations we’ve had in the past have been relatively generic,” he added. “I would say there were more judgment calls involved.”
Next, Maxcy will develop new end-of-course exams for grades K-2, 11 and 12, since those grade levels don’t take the FCAT, which is used in the learning gains portion of evaluation. Until those tests are created, school averages will be used.
According to Maxcy, the momentum gained in performance pay’s launch year has been positive, and he’s hoping for a similar synergy next year for his principals program. The only difference in their evaluations, he said, is that they will be based on total school gains, and that the superintendent will head all reviews.
“What’s fair for the teachers is fair for the administrators,” he said. “Same rubric, same scoring, same expectations.”
After principals, district personnel will go through the same evaluations.
“By 2014, and by the time the money is attached,” Maxcy said, “(Race to the Top) will morph into a very fine-tuned and very understandable system.”
