Say goodbye to teaching as a profession

From the St. Augstine.com

by Sandra Parks

On March 9 the Florida Senate will vote on SB 736, which will specify statewide policies for teachers' and administrators' evaluation, compensation, and employment. Fifty percent of such evaluations will be based on student performance on FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) over a three-year period.

While the Senate Education committee chaired by Sen. Steven Wise has allowed more input from educators and the public than last year's more seriously flawed SB-6, it contains many of the same problems:

Over-reliance on a single high-stakes test that was not designed for the policy decisions for which it is used. Because teachers, parents, and children know that students cannot show what they have learned on one examination, their stress and resentment of this test will only be intensified as students know that their teachers' livelihoods will now depend on their scores. Race to the Top requires that the 50 percent of teacher evaluation must be based on student achievement; it does not require that either teacher evaluation or compensation must be based on one test! FCAT should be one of several measures (achievement tests, end-of-unit tests, graphics, writing assignments, term papers, projects, and media presentations) to give a more adequate, year-long evaluation of student learning.

Prohibits advanced degrees from being a factor in determining salary, unless it is in the individual's area of certification. Elementary teachers often secure a master's degree in reading, special education, and gifted education because these specialties are not offered at the undergraduate level. These degrees offer more background and require more evaluation than renewing certification by staff development or taking a few courses. Few undergraduate programs offer sufficient subject content to adequately prepare secondary science or social studies teachers to teach either general or advanced courses. In rural counties secondary teachers often have to teach three or four science,, social studies, or mathematics courses for which they are unprepared and may seek a masters' in the related subjects in order to be qualified.

Requires school districts to develop assessments for grades and subjects not tested by FCAT. Duval County spent millions developing 900 such tests. At a time when the legislature intends to cut state funding, this un-funded mandate places an undue financial burden on each county to develop end- of-grade tests whose validity will be untested.

Lacks research basis. This bill assumes that performance pay results in improved student learning. Reports about the results of merit pay are mixed. The first experimental/controlled research on the effects of bonuses, reported in 2010 by the National Center for Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University, showed that merit pay had no effect on student achievement. Across the country school districts and state legislatures are grappling with this issue. It is too soon to know the effects of such policies on student learning or the teaching profession.

Eliminates professional service contracts for teachers hired after July 1, 2011. There has to be a middle ground between career tenure and an annual contract. In what other field would professionals commit to a position with one year's job security? An illness, a divorce, or teaching an unusually challenging group of students may cause a teacher to be dismissed!

Wise's committee gave conscientious consideration to this complex bill and, with the Race to the Top incentives, has moved this whole issue forward. But SB-736 has too many serious consequences for teachers and local taxpayers to merit passage.

Stop this bill now and give DOE and this committee a year to fix it before this legislation has a chilling effect on Florida's teaching profession, requires additional property taxes, and creates greater distress for our children and families.

A companion bill is House Bill 7019, which is rapidly moving through the Florida House of Representatives.

For more than 30 years Sandra Parks has been a curriculum and professional development consultant, serving school districts and universities in 40 states, Canada, Mexico, and the U.K. She holds advanced degrees in curriculum from the University of South Florida and the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

http://staugustine.com/opinions/2011-03-01/guest-column-teacher-merit-pay-bill-presents-too-many-problems