Minnesota's school districts keep lining up to take a bite out of the $86 million that Governor Tim Pawlenty has set aside for his Q-Comp merit pay initiative. Districts' plans will all be based more or less on the TAP model, which emphasizes master teacher positions, content-focused professional development, and student achievement gains.

We'll be telling you more about various districts' plans in the coming months, but first mention goes to a bold new compensation plan in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Francis. The district's performance-based schedule will be based 50% on evaluations and 50% on student achievement gains. What's really striking, though, is the speed with which great teachers will be allowed to move up: a new teacher doing all the right things will be able to get to the top of the salary schedule in just seven years. What's more, teachers doing none of the right things won't get paid just for staying in the district per the usual routine. They'll get the same cost-of-living increases as everyone else, but they won't actually get to move up the compensation chain. St. Francis seems to be covering both ends of the teacher quality spectrum: great teachers will have a reason to go there, and poor ones will have a serious incentive to go to a district that has a traditional salary schedule.