The Florida Senate will take up its teacher pay bill today and the House bill is expected on the floor of the other chamber next week. Once both chambers approve the law, Gov. Rick Scott has pledged to sign it.
The proposal would say at least half of teachers’ pay would be tied to FCAT scores, and all teachers would receive annual instead of continuing contracts. Superintendents could not rehire anyone would doesn’t make political contributions to their campaigns or speaks out against a district policy.
By July 2012, districts would have to publicize the percentage of teachers in four categories, from “highly effective” to “effective,” “needs improvement” and “unsatisfactory.” Those who earn two “unsatisfactory” ratings within three years could be fired. And districts that face layoffs would be required to use teacher evaluation scores — not seniority — to determine who keeps their job.
The question is how objective will the measurements be and on what areas of performance—to date there is only FCAT being mentioned. We know now that principals have been allowed to keep their jobs, even though they have violated district policies because they have supported the superintendent. Others have been punished and transferred for no apparent reason or minor policy issues.
Plus, no one has shown any connection between the tenured teachers in Escambia County and its low reading scores. You can’t get anyone to say that Escambia County has an unusual large number of bad teachers that are hurting public education.
Take the entire faculty from Montclair Elementary (F School) swap it with Cordova Park Elementary (A School). Montclair would not become an A school because it had the Cordova Park faculty.