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Scott Signs Teacher Merit Pay In Law
March 25, 2011
Gov. Rick Scott signed the teacher merit pay bill on Thursday in Jacksonville, his first signed legislation since becoming Governor, tying teacher salaries to test scores and ending multi-year contracts.
“We must recruit and retain the best people to make sure every classroom in Florida has a highly effective teacher,” Scott said.
Under the measure, current teachers are also exempted from the new salary requirements and elimination of tenure. New teachers hired after July 2011 are put under one-year contracts and after July 2014, new teachers will be paid under the new merit pay system.
For new teachers, school districts would be required to set up an evaluation system that uses test scores for 50 percent of a teacher’s ranking and a “value-added” formula for the rest.
“This bill reduces a school district’s flexibility and authority over teacher evaluations, pay schedules and working conditions,” said Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association. “It’s not good for students, it’s not good for teachers and it’s not grounded in sound research.”
This is the second year the Legislature has attempted to pass a merit pay bill, with former Gov. Charlie Crist vetoing the bill last year after teacher protests. This year, the response from teachers was muted and Scott indicated early on his support for tying teacher pay to test scores.
Comments
9 Responses to “Scott Signs Teacher Merit Pay In Law”
I suspect we just became Lake Wobegone, where every child is above average.
(laughter) Linda (from the 25th), if your post proved anything it was that you must have gone to the public schools you criticize so vehemently.
You said…”The standard of education in this country is far below those in other countries, and it can be attributed to teachers who know they will gain tenure, and and increased salaries due to just being present to accept their paycheck. While I believe there are teachers who care, and do an excellent job; those teachers are far and few in between.”
I said…Besides the obvious grammatical and typographical errors in your message, do you have any hard evidence or statistics to back these statements up? Or should we use your opinions as evidence?
Please reread your post. First you tell us that the teachers are to blame, then the administrators, then the parents. Then you tell us we should pay teachers more. Then in your last paragraph, the blame seems to be back to the teachers.
The only thing you made clear was that you are a Scott supporter.
Dern grrl You gout me confuzed.
wonder, you said….”What teacher would want to come to Flordia and teach now? He has lost my vote.”
I said…You have said a mouthful. A year from now, you won’t be able to find anyone who voted for Scott to begin with.
“really great educators don;t seek monetary gain from teaching. to some it is a downright calling. the brilliant ones shine bright. their students come to love learning.”
Art, really great educators will not be able to afford teaching if it becomes a job in which we are penalized for choosing to work with economically disadvantaged, disabled and otherwise educationally challenged students.
It’s not about the money, it’s about the way this state will penalize educators for circumstances they can’t control. Really-great-educators are human and they can only tolerate so much before they become really-great people who work in the private sector.
I could care less about tenure, but don’t base my pay on student scores. I deserve competitive pay and benefits for my level of education and professionalism. I’ve never gotten a bad evaluation, but to base my salary on student outcomes is simply not fair! I teach every student with the highest expectations and I would never consider doing less than that!
well lets just wait and see what kind of teachers come to florida. in my most humble opinion i would think those that love kids and want to effect their lives for the good. same as all teachers everywhere. see, that is the part of the equation that some folks miss. really great educators don;t seek monetary gain from teaching. to some it is a downright calling. the brilliant ones shine bright. their students come to love learning.
What teachers will want to come to Florida now?
Maybe the ones who are good teachers and are willing to be paid for their superior teaching skills.
This is the other Linda not weighing in on this one! Good points being made on both sides of the issue, though.
Will start using NWFLA LINDA for my posts!!
Yeah, because we all want our pay based on obstacles we can’t control.
Next, let’s give paramedics raises based on how well their patients respond to emergency care. Lose a patient, lose a raise.
Law enforcement officers can get merit pay for how well citizens obey the law. More crime? Cut their pay.
I teach. I’m not lazy, I’m not greedy. Just please pay me based on my knowledge and my skills instead of the students’ knowledge and skills. I can’t pour that into their heads!
Oh, and we can’t compete in education on a global level because we allow ALL children to attend public schools. We don’t shuffle out the disabled, the disadvantaged or the severely disturbed. We take them all….
Other countries take only the highest functioning children and all others are tracked into lower performing educational programs or regrettably, institutional type settings with NO expectation of success. So there’s that. The data is not accurate.
What teacher would want to come to Flordia and teach now? He has lost my vote.
Bravo to Scott. The standard of education in this country is far below those in other countries, and it can be attributed to teachers who know they will gain tenure, and and increased salaries due to just being present to accept their paycheck. While I believe there are teachers who care, and do an excellent job; those teachers are far and few in between. I worked in the educational system and can tell you a good teacher needs support from the school administrators in order to be successful, and most do not support the teachers, but rather, are dictatorial leaders who demand conformity to rules that hinder the teacher from being successful.
I could go on and on, but the fact is our children score far lower than other countries in math, science, and our own native language English. I do not blame the teacher alone, nor the way in which they are paid, but I blame parents as well. There are very few parents involved in their child’s education, they elect to blame the teachers, and anyone else but themselves.
As a nation, we cannot compete on a global level any longer due to the substandard student public schools produce. I believe teachers should be paid far more than the current salary, however; they must PROVE they have the skills and ability to teach our children to excel, and execute any subject matter taught.
Last, but certainly no least, we test our children and reward them based on standardized test score, should we not expect the same of our educators? If teachers were producing results we could be proud of as a nation, then I am sure there would be no need to have this discussion, but unfortunately, they do not.
You will get what you pay for. If a teacher’s salary is directly tied to student performance it’s just a logical assumption that every student will pass and do so with remarkable scores. Learning and comprehension will be secondary to score achievement.
Less than four years and counting …
sad. so sad. just gives me the headache to no end. who is going to suffer the most? our kiddos. the ones that have the potential to develop higher cognitive skills and analytical thinking will be reduced to utilize only that part of their brains required to take tests. so now teachers are reduced to concentrating on teaching kids how to take tests, which incidentally is not educating them. just memorize and regurgitate the information and then go your merry way. everybody is happy, especially scott and his best buddies in the standardized testing business.