Florida Law Lacks Merit and Pay
A Republican-sponsored bill (SB 736) that would impose a merit pay plan on teachers and end tenure for new hires was approved by the Florida House on Wednesday. The legislation requires school districts to evaluate teachers partially on how much their students improve on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) or other exams over a three-year period. Half a teacher’s evaluation would be based on these test scores, while half would be based on evaluations by principals, and the evaluations would be used to determine if a teacher should get merit pay or