Teacher suspended after defying Hillsborough school district's evaluation system
By MARLENE SOKOL, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Friday, November 11, 2011
TAMPA — A veteran teacher was suspended Thursday for rejecting the evaluator chosen for him under a Gates-funded initiative that is revolutionizing the way the Hillsborough County School District assesses its teachers.
School and union officials believe this is the first such act of defiance under Empowering Effective Teachers, a complex system of mentoring and evaluation funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The district's action comes just one day after the couple themselves, Bill and Melinda Gates, toured Jefferson High School, where the computer mogul hailed the program as a national model and called its success "phenomenal."
Joseph Thomas, 43, a social studies teacher at Newsome High School, said he refused to