On invitation from the Florida Education Association, Dale Ballou, Daniel McCaffrey, and Matthew Springer met with Representative Joe H. Pickens and Senator Don Gaetz to discuss Florida’s pay for performance policies. The Florida Education Association asked the RAND corporation and the National Center on Performance Incentives to undertake a short-term assessment of Florida’s pay for performance policies. McCaffrey presented a RAND working paper entitled, Merit Pay for Florida Teachers: Design and Implementation Issues (co-authored with Ruchard Buddin, Sheila Nataraj Kirby, and Nailing Xia). Their report suggests policy makers should be wary of adapting performance measures without a thorough understanding of the properties of a particular teacher performance measure. Springer discussed preliminary findings from a pilot study of teacher attitudes on pay for performance (co-authored with Brian Jacob). Their most striking finding is how little teachers appear to understand how the two most recent pay for performance initiatives in Florida operate.

To view the RAND report, click here.