School Superintendents Complain About Pay Law

April 18, 2013

School superintendents expressed frustration Wednesday with the state’s teacher evaluation law during a meeting with Gov. Rick Scott a day after teachers filed suit in federal court to overturn the law.

Scott himself endorsed trying to fix the provision attacked by the lawsuit, part of a long-running dispute between the state and teachers over an effort to implement performance pay. The law, passed in 2011, aims to tie educators’ compensation more closely to their students’ achievements.

But some teachers whose courses aren’t measured in state tests are seeing part of their pay based on the scores of students they don’t teach or the scores of their students in other subjects. The lawsuit filed Tuesday argues that the law violates the constitutional right to equal protection.

“We need to stop evaluating teachers on students they are not serving,” Pinellas County Superintendent Mike Grego told Scott and Education Commissioner Tony Bennett.

Scott, Bennett and two of the governor’s education advisers met with dozens of superintendents from across the state. They heard a broad range of concerns and issues, including support for Scott’s idea of an across-the-board pay raise for teachers to take effect in the next school year, but much of the discussion focused on the evaluation issue.

“At some point, we’re going to have to recognize that not every teacher can have a test that’s built for what they do,” said Malcolm Thomas, superintendent in Escambia County.

Scott told the superintendents that he supported a pair of measures (HB 7141, SB 980) intended to make sure teachers are judged only on the achievement of students they teach. He said the teachers he’s spoken to don’t mind being evaluated.

“They want to make sure it’s fair,” Scott said. “They want to make sure … they’re evaluated based on their student achievement. We’re aggressively working on legislation that is going to move us down that path.”

So far, the bills have seen uneven progress. The House measure is ready for the floor, but the Senate version has two committee stops left as the weeks left in the legislative session dwindle.

By The News Service of Florida

Comments

3 Responses to “School Superintendents Complain About Pay Law”

  1. patti on April 19th, 2013 11:56 am

    I agree with Mr. Malcolm Thomas. I think all teachers should be judged ONLY on THOSE STUDENTS he or she teaches. It isn’t fair to base their pay on those FCAT scores. There are teachers who try very hard to make sure that all their students are prepared for the FCAT. Personally I think the schools should go back to teaching like they use to. Some students are A students, but when it comes to taking the FCAT test, they freeze up and don’t do so well, because of the stress that is put on each of them. Appreciate you Mr. Thomas! and all the teachers at Molino Park!!

  2. just saying on April 18th, 2013 10:46 pm

    I do believe teachers should be held accountable but only for the ones they teach i know for a fact when i was in school you have some teachers that would go above and beyond to help a student that is struggling on the other hand you had some who could of cared less . Now here it is 20 something years later i see the same thing . I also know at one time here locally we have had teachers teaching that couldn’t even earn their degree to teach but yet they are teaching. And as far as people complaining about they pay i agree some teachers deserve so much more but i don’t think they went into teaching believing they would be millionaires. So job well done for some of you and for the ones that dont care this parent wishes you would find another job

  3. Strike or rally on April 18th, 2013 11:05 am

    They are the ones who need their pay cut. Yes it’s their district their schools cut their pay the maybe they will stop overcrowding classes by adding a helper. Yes cut it skip the teachers they try but can only do so much when they are being told not to. Yes make these people tell parents that their child’s services are being cut due to budget cuts. What if teachers strike can they due that? Someone said teachers only make like 32,000 a year no way they need to show the world what they deal with because of no funding mainstreaming ese children Most Ese parents have no problem standing to help. If we do not stand to help these teachers the only people we can fault is ourselves. The only reason why these superintendents do this is so the teachers don’t take a stand.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News