In the first piece of legislation Rick Scott will sign as governor, the law will be passed that no new hires in Florida’s public school system will receive tenure after July first of this year.
This loss of job security brings with it the potential for teachers to make more money based on students’ performances on standardized tests.
By 2014, all teachers in Florida will receive pay based on evaluation and merit. The bill is one of many steps in a statewide initiative to hold teachers more accountable for their students’ success on standardized tests.
Included in these measures are allocations for rewards for schools that achieve high marks on student testing as well as sanctions for schools with high rates of failure.
Last year, Governor Charlie Christ vetoed a similar bill after teachers across the state voiced their disapproval.
As this new bill goes to Scott, opinions of education majors and professors at UT vary.
When it comes to doing away with tenure, freshman education major Kaylee Nonnemacher said that this is the one good point to the bill.
“Tenure guarantees teachers a job with a steady pay, even if they do nothing but sit at their desk[s] while students teach themselves out of a textbook every day,” said Nonnemacher. “I absolutely believe we owe it to the kids we’re teaching to be good teachers and tenure does nothing to put the focus on that.”
Education professor Pattie Johnston had a different take on tenure. “I get the logic of wanting to be able to remove bad teachers easily.” However, she said, “Tenure has been a huge attraction for teachers because, while they have to sacrifice pay, they are able to keep a secure job.”
Lauren McKeown, a first year education major, agreed with Johnston’s opinion on tenure. She added, “Although tenure is a good thing, school administrators need to be more observant and make sure the tenured teachers are working hard.”
Johnston’s biggest concern with the new bill is that the taking away of tenure might discourage students from majoring in education and deciding to become teachers. She said this is because “They know they’ll end up with a job with relatively low pay and little security for a job that requires a degree.”
“If you have [fewer] people wanting to get into the field, you’re probably going to wind up with worse teachers anyway, because it’s creating a smaller pool of applicants,” Johnston explained.
Florida teachers are already in the bottom margins when it comes to salary, and upcoming budget cuts are projected to cut pay and benefits even more drastically.
This is a concern that Nonnemacher had. “There are areas in this country where garbage collectors make more in a yearly salary than teachers do. But what it all comes down to is that whether you’re in it for the pay or not, you need to be earning something to live at least somewhat comfortably.”
When it comes to paying teachers based on merit and standardized test scores, McKeown said, “Allocating funds based on these test scores may make teachers work harder to help improve their students’ grades, but the students are the ones who have to do better on the tests.”
In Florida, statewide standardized tests were created to show student achievement based on Florida’s education standards, known as the Sunshine State Standards. According to Johnston, using standardized test scores to determine teacher pay “extends beyond the intent of the original construction of the test.”
Johnston, whose Ph.D. is in measurement and research, sees a positive value in giving students standardized tests. She stated, though, that the purpose of these tests are to evaluate how well a student is doing in a subject and to show where students need improvement.
“These results are supposed to be used diagnostically for the students,” she said. “When you have legislature saying it’s a good idea to take the results and use them to evaluate how well teachers are doing—that’s just crazy.”
Nonnemacher stated, “Yes, teachers do measure students, but there’s a clear difference between a teacher and a good teacher. A teacher, as Scott is defining with this bill, does nothing but focus on drilling whatever information will get a top score on the state standardized test.”
Legislators are planning on the Republican-sponsored bill benefiting the majority of Florida students for the long run.
“I think it’s going to be really hard to predict what such a dramatic move is going to do,” said Johnston.
Educators and legislators across Florida are trying to predict just that as Rick Scott works out the specifics of the legislation.
Channing Hailey can be reached at channing.hailey@gmail.com.
only one complaining is teachers and those who want to be or their families. Who cares anyways? It’s about time they are payed based on performance- like the rest of us. Just sayin
With the signing of this bill into law, teaching to the test takes on new meaning…. money & job security. Teaching is no longer a profession, its become just a job. When are they installing the time clock to punch in and out?