Merit pay is not proven to work and determining teachers pay by how some of their children do on standardized tests would be like tying their salary to the wind, unfair and impossible. -cpg
From the Palm Beach Post
by Tony Alanez
TALLAHASSEE — Controversial school reformer Michelle Rhee told Florida lawmakers Wednesday that students would be better off if public schools could get rid of teacher tenure and ineffective teachers without delay.
"Tenure does not put students first," she said before the Senate Prek-12 Education Committee. "It should be virtually impossible for an ineffective educator to stay in the classroom."
The former chancellor of the Washington public school system and founder of Students First serves as an informal education advisor to Florida Gov. Rick Scott.
A 41-year-old Democrat, she has been criticized for firing more than 200 teachers, closing dozens of failing schools and her support of measuring teacher quality by students' test scores.
Her boss, Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty, lost his bid for re-election in last year's primary, and she resigned in October amid outcry from unions.
Rhee, who is featured in the education documentary "Waiting for Superman," was introduced to Florida legislators as a "movie star." Lawmakers lauded her for political courage and willingness "to take the heat."
Her No. 1 word of caution: "If you'd like to learn from one of the mistakes I made in particular, make it as clear as possible that you are not out to get teachers when you talk about and create policies that reflect how incredible their influence is."
Rhee praised SB 736 or "Race to the Top for Student Success" bill now before lawmakers that would rely heavily on student test scores to judge teacher performance and end tenure for new instructors.
A similar effort last year was widely criticized by teachers as unworkable and unfair and was ultimately vetoed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist.
Crist, who was in the capitol Wednesday, said he was disappointed to see the return of similar legislation.
"I obviously had very strong feelings about it last year, that's why I vetoed it," Crist said. "I don't think there's anything wrong with merit pay per se, but it seems to me that it has to be crafted in a way that is fundamentally fair too."
Public education faces a 10 percent reduction under Scott's newly proposed budget, but Rhee said such cuts do not have to result in damaged schools systems.
"Money does not necessarily correlate with student achievement," she said. "In this country in the last 30 years, we have more than doubled the amount of money we are spending per child…and the results have gotten worse not better."
Noting that Florida's education system recently was ranked fifth in the nation, Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee asked: "How can we be such an inept public school system, yet rank so high?"
National standing is not an adequate measure, said Rhee, emphasizing that today's children will be competing for jobs on a global level.
Last-one-in, first-one-out firing policies result in more jobs lost and tend to have negative impact on poorer neighborhoods, Rhee said.
That's because newer teachers earn less than tenured ones, so when it's time for layoffs more have to be fired to meet budget gaps, she said, and it's the schools in the neediest neighborhoods that tend to employ new teachers.
"[These firing policies are] decimating schools of the best educators in neighborhoods that need them the most," she said.
Rhee did not quibble with Democratic Hollywood Sen. Eleanor Sobel's concerns that perhaps teaching programs were failing to adequately prepare future educators.
"I'm very disappointed with the majority of teacher education programs across the country," Rhee said. "[They're] not actually preparing teachers well for the rigors they're going to see every single day in the classroom."
Rhee additionally called for separating teacher evaluations from the collective bargaining process, requiring teachers to pay into their retirement accounts and eliminating the practice of school districts paying for teachers to earn Master's Degrees.
"Keep being a leader in this most urgent area of need for our country," she said. "As you know, being among the first to challenge the status quo will not make your lives easy, especially when confronting the economic pressures that threaten the communities across the state."
Rhee made a repeat performance before the House PreK-20 Competitiveness Subcommittee Wednesday afternoon. The Senate committee is expected to vote on the bill Thursday afternoon.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/schools/scotts-reformer-tells-legislators-dump-tenure-bad-teachers-1244326.html
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