Posted on 09/15/2017 6:35:27 AM PDT by ConservativeStatement
A oup of teachers and Florida's teacher union are going to court to stop the state's "Best and Brightest" teacher bonus program.
The Florida Education Association and seven teachers filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday against the Florida Department of Education and the state's school districts.
The lawsuit alleges that the bonus program discriminates against older teachers, as well as black and Hispanic teachers.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Ya....that’s kinda the point of a MERIT BASED program!
It “discriminates” based upon PERFORMANCE measured by RESULTS!
But then for of all the teachers who were raised on "participation trophies" the idea of merit might be new and confusing.
If I correctly understand this, the awards are based partly on the teachers' SAT or ACT scores ("the standardized tests used to get into college"). The complainants contend that their scores weren't accessible.
One would think that the testing agencies could pull the scores up, given the person's name, DOB, and Social Security number. However, I might be wrong. It's also possible that other tests, which might not have been saved, are meant.
Don’t you mean “the teachers’ CLASSES’ SAT and ACT scores?”
The teachers’ scores are long gone.
Let’s see, I took both the SAT and the ACT back in the 60s and my scores are still available. This appears to be nothing more than poor quality “teachers” who still think they should get paid for sitting in a room full of kids without offending anyone by actually teaching.
“Those who can, DO ... Those who can’t, TEACH ... Those who can’t teach, TEACH TEACHERS!”
No, the text I quoted said it was the teachers’ scores on standardized college-admissions exams that were being considered. If the article misstated the situation, then nothing we say about it will make any sense.
Discriminates against the less capable.
I wonder how a student's SAT/ACT scores matter in the work-a-day world (today's teachers being those students). I understand the lawsuit on those grounds....
The SAT verbal used to be an IQ test, but because the left didn’t like the like the scores of women and minorities, it was changed to a reading comprehension test. The math portion of the test is essentially an achievement test, also. So, if reading and math matter, the scores today matter. I’m sure whatever the program was, it rewarded some measure of “value added”. The LAT did a survey a few years ago and found that more experience and more teacher union approved credentials negatively correlated with classroom result. In my experience, the more intelligent, capable teachers are gone within the first five years. Those who can’t find indoor work with no heavy lifting anywhere else tend to stay. In government schools, the rule is reverse Darwin, the survival of the unfittest.
I work in an educational setting in Florida (not a teacher).
The awards are based on the teachers’ ACT or SAT scores. Older teachers either didn’t have to take the test, or the scores are long-ago inaccessible.
And really, if you are a 55 year old teacher, who has been teaching successfully for 30+ years, who gives a shit what score you got on a test when you were 17?
It’s a ridiculous program and a stupid way to spend taxpayer money. I am all for TRUE merit based recognition, but I’m not at all surprised that teachers are filing lawsuits.
These criteria make no sense for awarding a bonus. It's possible to receive a good evaluation without good results from teaching. Also, a long-ago admissions test has little bearing, IMO, on what a teacher can do or does do in a classroom today. A bonus in industry reflects performance that added to the bottom line or advanced the organization goals in some tangible way. If you can't measure against some result that reflects why the school exists, then don't bother with a nonsensical bonus program. It's simply a waste of money...other people's money.
This BS...you can either teach or you cannot..
Like being an entertainer..
My wife was a first second teacher in Colorado...
In most cases all her students passed..she had special needs mixed in once and a while..
She made learning FUN..
Example..
Watermelon Math
You weigh the watermelon..pounds and ounces
You cut the watermelon..circle..half .quarter
You count the seeds in your piece of watermelon
Ones and tens
Then the class counts all the seeds
There was more but I cannot remember
Then you get to eat you watermelon
Another example.. Physics
Match box track..and cars..boys loved this
They made ramps of different length and height..
and measured how far the cars went
If your teaching High School Math and Science you need to know the subject.
This goes to the heart of the problem with schools. Teachers are controlled by unions. Unions determine who gets elected (the people who negotiates with the union on school funding and contracts). It is why schools are failing to educate core values and core skills.
Yawn...
Bookmark
Well, if the article is right, it’s kind of funny, because you’d think that if the teachers took the SAT year after year, they’d eventually get good at them! Sorry for the misinterpretation on my side.
A comment above indicated that the criterion is the teachers’ test scores at the time the teachers’ were applying for college. I suspect the intention was to have some kind of objective factor to consider. Evaluations are subjective, and most teachers get “Outstanding!” results every year. Teachers do not like being evaluated based on students’ results; reasonably, they contend that too many factors are involved in student outcomes to make one year’s results a determinant of compensation. Maybe some kind of “rolling 5-year average” would be informative, but it wouldn’t work for the least experienced teachers.
Where’d that extra apostrophe come from? I know ... cats!
That would be a very long-tail, unanticipated side-effect of a teacher's high school SAT performance. Not to mention that the tests have changed over the years (reports say scoring is easier).
And, from what I've seen of must education majors, the race would be among at-best mediocre performers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.