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Teachers in poor schools lose out in Hillsborough merit-pay test

Letitia Stein | St. Petersburg Times
February 25, 2008

TAMPA - Hillsborough County's 15,000 teachers agreed last year to be guinea pigs in Florida's controversial experiment with merit pay, an issue dividing politicians and educators across the state.

The results weren't at all what officials expected.

A St. Petersburg Times investigation shows that almost three-fourths of the nearly 5,000 teachers who received merit pay worked at the county's more-affluent campuses.

In contrast, only 3 percent of the educators deemed worthy of the $2,100 bonuses worked in the low-income schools that struggle most, where nine in 10 students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

And almost two-thirds taught in A-rated schools, where they arguably were least needed.

That wasn't how it was supposed to work. State and local officials promised that the merit-pay program, tied heavily to FCAT scores, would reward outstanding teachers wherever they taught, regardless of how advanced or behind their students started out....
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