Merit pay law raises questions for Florida's specialty teachers

By Scott Travis, Sun Sentinel
4:50 p.m. EDT, August 20, 2011

The state's new teacher merit pay law kicks in this school year and the idea behind it sounds simple: the better students perform, the more teachers can earn.

But in areas such as art, music and physical education, it's raising more questions than answers. The law mandates up to half of a teacher's raise be based on how well students do on standardized tests, but there is no state criteria to evaluate specialty teachers. Districts will have to come up with that this year.

Another complicating factor, says Boynton Beach High School Principal Karen Whetsell, is that a student's FCAT success can't be attributed to just one teacher. "The art teacher, the drama teacher, the music teacher give kids some purpose to come to school…We all work together. How do you evaluate one over the other?"

Teachers hired after July 1 will fall under the merit pay rules; others can opt in or continue being paid based on tenure. Yet even those honored for excellence in their specialties are mixed in their opinions about how fair the new system can be to those following in their footsteps. ...

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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education...6745,full.story