Sponsored by Senator John Thrasher (R-Jacksonville), this bill (and its house companion HB 7189) makes fundamental changes in how teachers are hired, fired and paid.
While many on both sides of the aisle agree that more flexibility and accountability is needed, this legislation is perceived by many as an attack on public school teachers. Florida would be the first in the nation to tie teacher salaries so tightly to their students’ standardized test scores.
The Senate has rammed through legislation that will have a huge and immediate impact on the quality of classroom instruction, especially for the most at-risk kids. Teaching-to-the-test will be far more rampant, and we’ll lose our best teachers. Click here to tell the Florida House to stop this bad bill now.
Facing salary cuts, contract termination and even the loss of their teaching certification if student gains are deemed insufficient, the best teachers are unlikely to be willing to work in low-performing, high-risk schools with the students most in need of their expertise.
Your can see the bill and its history on the Florida House of Representative’s website here: http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=44566&SessionId=64
Here are some of the more controversial elements:
School districts are required to base 50% of teacher’s pay each year on student gains on standardized tests.
But there is no special provision made for teachers with disadvantaged students, which means there is no consideration given to the large number of factors affecting student performance over which a teacher has no control (home environment, for example, which effects everything from reading ability to whether they went to bed on time and had a decent breakfast before test day). The bill also doesn’t address the fact that the lowest-performing students also tend to be the most transient — the makeup of a teacher’s classroom can change as much as 80% in the course of a year. How do you decide which kids’ scores affect which teacher’s paycheck with that kind of turnover?
School districts will no longer be allowed to consider teaching experience or advanced degrees in determining salary.
In fact, they will face financial penalties imposed by the state if they choose to do so. If the goal is to increase teacher quality, why remove incentives for teachers to seek graduate education? And why remove incentives for experienced teachers to remain in the public schools? Critics suggest that these measures punish all teachers, especially the best, rather than just ineffective ones.
Teachers will no longer have tenure and will be granted only annual, single-year contracts.
They can be fired if their students’ gains on standardized tests are insufficient. They can even lose their teaching certificate. Just as with salaries, the legislation makes no provision for teachers working with high-risk students.
The bill would also eliminate programs that address regions with critical teacher shortages and that provide loan forgiveness for teachers willing to serve in low-performing schools.
If you truly care about Florida’s education system, it’s ability to truly help students, and to hire and retain superior educators, please take time to call or email Florida House Speaker Larry Cretul and tell him that you oppose SB 6 and HB 7189. Contact information for Speaker Cretul is as follows:
Larry Cretul (R) – Florida House Speaker
Capitol Office
420 The Capitol
402 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300
Phone: (850) 488-1450
Email: larry.cretul@myfloridahouse.gov
Reprinted by permission from CivicConcern.org
I hope you found this post useful! As always, if you or anyone you know is in need of a local Florida mortgage loan originator, I’m your guy. Call me at 888-859-7418 or apply online for your Florida mortgage. We’ll keep you posted and let you know when it’s time to pull the trigger!
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[...] On Monday March 29th, Representative Stargel will play host to a mass of Polk County Teachers and education supporters prepared to tell her just what they think about this most recent attack on Florida’s teachers. [...]
Government is failing us right now! We are treating our teachers like sweat shop workers. As on who works with Teens for a living I will not in any way ever again be encouraging students to go to college to be a teacher. Their future is more important than that.
Thank you for this important post.
It’s important to know that teachers recognized as great have not always had “great” test scores.
Ron Clark’s students scored the lowest in his county in writing his first year teaching. Under the new Florida law, Ron Clark would not have taught a second year. He went on to become the Disney 2000 Teacher of the Year.
(See page 109 of his book, The Essential 11)
Jaime Escalanate also had a miserable beginning to his teaching career. According to the Washington Post, only 5 out of 14 of his first calculus students even finished the course, and only 2 students passed the AP exam. That’s an 86% failure rate!
Clearly, years of experience do matter, even for “great” teachers!
STOP THE PASSAGE OF SB 6 HB 7189