A Florida bill to repeal the state's beleaguered Special Teachers Are Rewarded (STAR) performance-pay program and replace it with the new Merit Award Program (MAP) was signed into law yesterday by Governor Crist. The bill passed state legislature with near-unanimous approval and received the consent of the Florida Education Association (FEA).

STAR, passed last year under Governor Jeb Bush, was itself an attempt to end controversy over the state's earlier attempts at performance pay. Almost immediately, STAR encountered sharp criticism from unions and districts alike, including a legal challenge by the FEA. The union claimed at the time that STAR relied too heavily on student performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT)--which wasn't really their problem but be patient; this is complicated. They also claimed the test treated teachers of non-FCAT subjects unfairly, undermined teamwork, and unfairly targeted only the top 25 percent of teachers. The union backed the new system, MAP, as a more palatable compromise, after their legislative attempts to replace STAR with a run-of-the-mill base pay increase failed.

No doubt the STAR plan had its flaws. Some district plans called for rank-ordering teachers, and then, in the event of a tie, entering them into a lottery if there was inadequate funding to award both teachers. District plans also called for using FCAT or school math and reading scores to evaluate, gym, art, and music teachers. The state had told districts to develop other assessments to measure growth in subjects not tested by FCAT--somehow expecting district officials to develop new tests in all their spare time.

So what about the latest and greatest? "MAP" actually increases how much objective student achievement measures will count in the bonus calculation, from 50 percent under STAR to 60 percent under MAP. That begs the question of what was really bugging the union all along when they complained that STAR focused too much on testing. The difference is that MAP is less focused on learning gains, and increases the likelihood that a teacher in a chronically high-performing school will get awards. So once again, the focus is shifted away from solving problems like the achievement gap and back toward making sure that everyone gets their fair share.

There are some improvements over the old plan, however. STAR was targeted at giving at least the top 25 percent of teachers in each district with a bonus equal to 5 percent of their base salaries. The new system gives districts more flexibility in deciding the size of the bonus, ranging from 5 to 10 percent of the average teacher salary in the district. This provision helps districts eliminate STAR's de facto penalty on new teachers who are lower on the salary schedule, since the new calculation will mean they can be awarded the same size of bonus as a more veteran teacher. However, it might still pose a problem for high-turnover districts, which have relatively more new teachers and lower average teacher salaries.

Will MAP outlive its predecessors? Only time will tell. But by the union's account, "every one of the merit and performance pay schemes in Florida's long history has failed miserably and created deep divisions, distractions and distrust among teachers," so it's hard to see this honeymoon lasting.