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$10,000 Teacher's Bonus Program Not Welcomed in Alachua County

Best and Brightest Scholarship Program
Leila Harrington teaches fifth grade students at Kimball Wiles Elementary School in Gainesville. "Alachua County public school teachers work around the clock and are dedicated to their students,” Harrington said. "I feel like we're all united in the fact that this is not a fair way to hand out funds.”

The Florida Legislature has implemented a new scholarship program for teachers that could result in a $10,000 bonus, but some teachers are feeling frustrated rather than excited.

Proposed by Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami, the Florida Best and Brightest Teacher Scholarship Program will award bonuses to Florida teachers who scored at or above the 80th percentile on their SAT or ACT assessment and qualify as a highly-effective teacher in the most recent state evaluation.

Eligible teachers will receive their bonuses on April 1, 2016.

However, if more than 4,402 teachers qualify in the state of Florida, the bonus amount will be reduced, according to the Florida Education Association’s website.

Two hundred and fifty-three Alachua County teachers submitted an application to meet the Oct. 1 deadline, said Beverly Finley, human resources supervisor of Alachua County Public Schools. Nevertheless, many highly qualified teachers voiced frustrations over the requirements.

Karen McCann, president of the Alachua County Education Association, said there are a number of factors regarding the qualifications for this bonus that are extremely unfair, and the Florida Education Association will be assisting in filing a discrimination charge on this bill.

McCann said the charge will focus on issues with age and national origin.

People who did not have access to their scores, but were highly qualified, tended to be older and were not able to access their scores before the deadline, McCann said.

Many older teachers found that their scores had been archived, while others took the ACT or SAT decades ago when a national percentage was not in place, she said.

McCann said another group of teachers facing difficulties with the standardized test requirement were those who attended a community college and later transferred to a college or university to complete their education degree. These teachers were not required to have an ACT or SAT score.

Teachers who completed their degree in another country, but have applied and received their teaching certificate here in America, also did not have ACT or SAT scores to submit for this scholarship program, she said.

The bill states that research has linked student outcomes to a teacher’s own academic achievement.

The $44 million program will give $10,000 per teacher, assuming 4,402 teachers qualify. The percentile is based on the ranks that were in effect when the teacher took the assessments.

But ACT and SAT scores do not have a correlation with whether teachers are highly effective, and the $44 million could have been used more successfully to reward teachers without evaluating these scores, McCann said.

“If you want to reward effective teachers, just give the district the money and let them reward the highly effective teachers," she said. "ACT and SAT scores do not have a relationship with your effectiveness of being a good teacher."

Leila Harrington, a 41-year-old fifth-grade teacher at Kimball Wiles Elementary School, said she scored well on her ACT and SAT, but could not get a copy of her scores in the amount of time requested.

“It’s very frustrating to all of us because we feel that we have put in so much time and effort," she said.

Harrington said the best teachers do not always start out getting over the 80th percentile.

"Some teachers start out struggling and they blossom in college, or they blossom in their first few years of teaching," she said.

Harrington said with a superintendent like Owen Roberts, a principal like Barbara Buys, “and people that stand up for you every day, it's very frustrating because if they could give us the money, they would.”

Harrington has been teaching for over 16 years, but because she started working in Alachua County only last year, there was no data to evaluate. Therefore, she was only rated effective this year.

“I don’t feel that this program is an accurate representation of the quality of teachers that we have, especially in Alachua County,” she said. “It’s very disheartening, especially when you work long hours like we do.”

Harrington said she appreciates the incentive but finds the implementation of the program to be unfair.

“It’s just one of those things that divides us rather than unites us,” she said. “And we need to be united because we are all working for the same goal and that is the education of children.”

The Florida Best and Brightest Teacher Scholarship Program , bill HB 5011, was originally proposed by the Appropriations Committee and Rep. Fresen. The bill made it through the first reading during regular session 2015, but died on the second reading calendar on April 28, 2015.

However, the program was added as line item 99A to the state budget, which was approved during the budget special session.

Rep. W. Keith Perry, representing District 21 including Gilchrist, Dixie and part of Alachua County, was not available for comment. Rep. Fresen, who proposed the house bill, HB 5011, was also unavailable for comment.

Michelle is a reporter who can be contacted by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news@wuft.org.