In the three years that the Pinellas County, Florida, district has offered its more than 7,800 teachers a performance bonus as mandated by the state, exactly two have qualified and taken home the money. To get a paycheck topped up by 5 percent, Pinellas teachers are required to have had a hand in helping students raise their test scores by 120 percent of the expected increases for their grades. The teachers must also be rated "outstanding" by their principals and demonstrate they have gone beyond the ordinary, through awards, credentials, and service. Though Pinellas County, which includes St. Petersburg, may be an extreme, districts around the state have fallen far short of what the Florida legislature envisioned when it required them to put up 5 percent of their teacher-salary budgets for performance pay, starting in 2003, according to F. Philip Handy, the chairman of the state board of education. As a result of the districts' disappointing showing, Mr. Handy said, the board will direct the state education department to make rules that hold districts to a higher standard. While teachers and some of their unions are ready to consider departures from the "uniform" pay scale for those who take on more duties or the toughest assignments, or who teach in fields with shortages, using student-achievement data to determine pay remains an anathema for many educators. The state mandate played out differently in the Hillsborough County district, which includes Tampa. There, school officials expect more than 700 of their 12,000-teacher corps to get bonuses for this past year, up from more than 500 the previous year and about 230 in 2002-03. State officials say they could withhold millions of dollars in aid from districts that refuse to go along with the new rules.