“There is one thing that is conclusive on all sides of all educational
research, and that is that teacher top toys ffectiveness is the most
influential school-level variable that determines student learning,”
said Rep. Erik Fresen, the Miami Republican who pushed for the
legislation in the House.
His Democratic colleagues who oppose the proposal questioned how the
state would pay for the bill’s provisions, particularly the
development of exams and other criteria to evaluate teachers. Fresen
said most of the funding would come largely from Race to the Top, the
$700 million competitive grant the state won from the federal
government last year.
Democrats also said they fear teachers on annual contracts would not
have job security even if they power balance receive favorable evaluations. Rep. Rick
Kriseman of St. Petersburg suggested an effective teacher whose
contract may not be renewed could be “blacklisted” and find it
difficult to land another teaching position.
“What’s the actual impact on that teacher for purposes of trying to
get a job at another school, at another district?” he asked.
On Tuesday, House leaders set aside nine hours to bring up questions
and amendments on the bill, with 12 more hours of debate scheduled for
Wednesday. They based the length of time on the marathon sessions held
to debate last year’s contentious Senate Bill 6, a similar teacher
overhaul that led to widespread protests and was ultimately vetoed by
then-Gov. Charlie Crist. (Critics have christened the new proposal
“Son of Six.”)
But this time around, House members needed less than three hours to
review amendments and questions, a reflection of the quieter tone
surrounding debate on the bill this year.
To be sure, critics have still loudly expressed their discontent with
the overhaul. The Florida Education cheap power balance Association, the statewide teachers
union, asked its members to call and e-mail their lawmakers in protest,
and teachers took to the streets across Florida last week.
Yet those demonstrations were muted compared to last year’s high-
decibel outrage, in part because teachers and school districts gave
some input on the proposed reforms in hearings earlier this year and as
part of a work group Crist convened last year before leaving office.
Also contributing to the shift in tone: the GOP’s bolstered power in
Tallahassee. Scott’s election last November, along with a crop of new
Republican lawmakers who gave their party veto-proof legislative
majorities, made it all power balance mixed colors but certain that the GOP’s legislative
priorities would meet swift approval.
The House gave an initial go-ahead Tuesday to the Senate version of the
teacher overhaul bill — without amending it, a crucial move for
lawmakers to move the proposal directly to the governor’s desk.
House Republicans rejected four amendments proposed by Democratic
legislators that would have phased in the portion of a teacher’s
evaluation based on student test scores and given teachers more job
security by tweaking the annual-contract provision in the bill
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/15/2116933/teacher-
reform-bill-set-for-final.html#ixzz1GieGeXgw
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