Florida Merit Award Program - Term Paper Example

Florida merit award program evaluation Introduction The merit award program (MAP) got established by the Florida in the year 2007. The program was meant to provide performance pay supplements, funded by the state, to teachers and administrators with high performance. Participation in the program by schools is voluntary, but for these schools to get funds from the merit award program, their districts are required to develop a pay plan based on performance which meets the requirements of the program. Merit award program provides a supplement payment not lower than five percent (5%) and not exceeding ten percent (10%), of the mean of the teachers’ income for the school district. A school district may make available extra pay supplements for the workers who display good work attendance. The awarding of the additional payment is done in accordance with an assessment of the performance of the employee. Student performance, mainly, forms the base for the assessment. School-based administrator’s assessment is based on student’s (as a group) performance. School teachers get evaluated by the school principal while school-based administrators get evaluated by the district superintendents. The evaluation is done in relation to their (teachers and administrators) specific assessments (Chait, 2007). Strengths of the program Teachers form a foundation of all reform efforts in education. Improvement of teaching workforce quality results to the success of the teachers. According to research, a well performing teacher is an asset to all students, especially those who live in poverty. In merit pay for teachers, teachers are offered incentives in form of money so as to improve the performance of students in their respective classes and performance of the school at large (Buddin et al, 2007). The Florida merit award program has proved to be successful and advantageous in a number of ways. Some of the strengths of the program include: It responds to the expectation of the people that states have the responsibility to persuade students pursue their education to college and support families meet the costs of education It promotes essential objectives of the state such as developing individuals who are well educated and producing a highly skilled work force The program can be well understood. The process of application and the structure of award are clearly defined. Eligibility and requirements of renewal are also very clear It also rewards the students who achieve in their education. This is a goal for the traditional financial aid program It motivates students to work hard towards specific secondary school curricula and get better grades since the amounts of the award are significant and sure The program helps the middle-income families to get their children into need-based programs since these children face difficulties in qualifying for the aid of such programs It enhances and promotes improved performance in colleges. The program pressurizes students to achieve highly so as they can continuously get their awards (Buddin et al, 2007) The program also motivates employees. Research indicates that an increase of one percent may increase the performance of the employees by about two percent. However, providing bonuses for good performance is more effective as compared to automatic pay rise since it can elevate the performance of an employee to as much as nineteen percent Merit award program attracts qualified applicants or candidates to the profession of teaching, since incomes vary largely and have a basis on the strength of local teachers unions and local tax revenue The results received are positive. The program enhances high productivity or increased work quality as result of employees working harder than expected. If individuals work consistently in strive to acquire merit pay increases, then the cumulative impact for the company would be healthier than before (PEPC, 1999). Weaknesses of the program The prospects for the Florida merit award program are not promising regardless of the anticipation through theoretical and empirical reasons that the program would generate positive results students. Since the implementation of education reforms is done in a political setting, the potential of merit award is not a reality. Whatever gains that may be generated from this program; those gains might not be realized due to the same implementation challenge that results to many other reforms. That is, when a reform in education possesses the theoretical potential for achievement, for that very reason, it will be alleged to be threatening to the established interests. The outcome is, the very interests will give their resources, time and energy to diluting or blocking the reform, in stead of enhancing its implementation on an extensive and exact basis. If the educational reform fails to deal with the political power of the established interests to dilute or block that reform, then the destiny of the reform is disappointment (Buck, 2010). Some of the major weaknesses of the Florida merit award program include: Merit award may be blocked. Teacher unions have always had the ability to block the enactment of the merit award. If these unions fail to block a merit award program from being enacted, then they always have the capability to make sure that the program is not long-term, or they make the program the first to be ruled out in the times of tight budget. Though the merit award may be put into existence on the basis of a statewide, still the unions have ability to forbid local districts from supporting the program. So far, only a few districts of Florida State get involved in merit award, even though the program of the state would make available free monetary capital for them. Other political victories got by the unions involve programs which tend to provide large amount of money for graduate degrees rather than for improvement of the performance of students, or those programs that become so diluted that they reward a vast number of teachers (Buck, 2010) The merit award program tries to recreate a market system within a squeeze-controlled state monopoly. This objective can not be achieved; it is burdened with risk. However much the wise and renowned actors of the state may achieve in getting the incentives right in time at a specific moment in a specific place, their deeds and efforts can be ruled out by their immediate successors. These successors may be affected by the strong special interests with the intention of blocking merit awards, loosening the standards, or misusing the term “merit pay or award” while giving rewards for the action that has no link to actual or real success (Buck, 2010) The Florida merit award program is not need-based since some students who get the scholarship can afford the education cost at college without them The program does not help those students who actually need assistance It enhances shifting of public resources from the lower-income families to middle and upper income-families. Research indicates that lotteries, the major source of funds for the support of this program, are played by individuals getting lower income, but the recipients of scholarship tend to come from higher income bands It may result to inflation of grade at the secondary and tertiary levels as students seek favors from the teachers and lecturers to award them grades or marks that will make them qualify for merit awards (PEPC, 1999) Recommendations The Florida merit award program was set on the basis of certain prospects which seemed to be very promising, despite the theoretical and empirical reasons for anticipating the failure of the program to produce good results for the students (PEPC, 1999). The issue is, public schools are not mainly institutions of education where policies to maximize the achievement of students are organized. Rather, the systems of public schools have to be comprehended as political organizations which have got organized for the interests of their affiliated politicians, employees, union representatives and other groups of interest. Therefore, the interest of public schools in merit award programs would be very little despite their promise for students. Differentiating the pay for teachers or tutors by valid merit measures would break apart the one-mind political front which develops the strength of these established interests. Teachers who receive improved salaries and working conditions as a result of their efforts, in stead of the efforts of their affiliated politicians or organized representatives, can attract the attention of more effective teachers to realize the purpose of contributing towards the support of the unions in either way, financial or political. Those teachers who are less effective would also grow interest in contributing for unions’ support if serious award programs were implemented (PEPC, 1999). One way that can be used to reduce the power or strength of established interests and allow enactment and application of merit award is to concurrently enlarge competition and choice in learning and develop merit award programs. If the students choose the schools they would to attend, then those schools should have incentives to develop and put in practice the policies and actions that would advance their value and draw students together with the resources they produce. If the system of merit can help in attracting and psyching up effective teachers, then schools in an environment of high competition would have the incentives to start those programs. These schools also have the potential to design and uphold those systems of merit award in a way very sensible because their revenue relies on it (Senate, 2010). Reforms will have less incentive to cooperate if, like merit, are carried onto schools by national government, state, or district. In public schools, jobs and revenue differ as to whether they should adopt and implement effective reforms or not. Private enterprises in markets with a lot of competition frequently involve attached compensation level and continued employment to job performance. There is no major authority that requires imposing pay according to performance on an organization against its will. The problem with trying to introduce merit award in learning is that it involves imposing a practice based on the market in an environment that is non-market. There is no existence of the forces that make organizations to seek, maintain and alter effective systems of award in public education. The established interests strongly refute or despise the merit award thus making the success of the program doubtful (Senate, 2010). References Buddin, R, et al. (2007). Merit pay for Florida teachers. Retrieved from: http://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR508.html Buck, S., & Greene, J. (2010). Blocking, diluting, and co-opting merit pay. Retrieved from: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/pepg/MeritPayPapers/Greene_Buck_10-14.pdf Chait, R. (2007). Current state policies that reform teacher pay. Retrieved from: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/report/2007/11/05/3705/current-state-policies-that-reform-teacher-pay/ PEPC Report. (1999). Florida’s bright futures scholarship program: A baseline evaluation. Retrieved from: http://www.cepri.state.fl.us/pdf/bffin.pdf The Florida senate. (2010). Florida statutes. Retrieved from: http://www.flsenate.gov/laws/statutes/2010/1012.225 Read More