Movie-going teachers are treated to a chuckle and a stinging slap of reality in the new Muppets movie, when Kermit and his buddies are made to watch some of the new children's programming that has replaced them on TV, including the reality show "Punch Teacher." This tongue-in-cheek stab of humor briefly features two children gearing up to punch their teacher, while the man piteously bemoans, "I just thought I could make a difference!"
Thankfully, children aren't encouraged to punch their teachers (yet). But that doesn't mean Florida teachers haven't been getting a metaphorical right hook to the gut since governor Rick Scott took office in January of this year.
Despite the fact that Scott has routinely rejected federal funds, including grant money for health care and stimulus money for the high speed rail, has cut back on state programs for the homeless, and has wasted thousands of dollars on an initiative to drug-test welfare recipients, the real problem, apparently, is that teachers get paid too much.
Despite the fact that former Florida governor Charlie Crist vetoed what is now known as the "Merit Pay Bill" in 2010, one of the first things Rick Scott did when he took office was to ram-rod a nearly identical bill through the legislative process, despite protest from thousands of parents, students, and teachers throughout the state. Under this new legislation, any teacher hired after July 1 would be denied continuing contract, regardless of years of experience. The ever-supportive Hernando school board, in response, laid off dozens of teachers who were close to reaching the third-year mark (some with many years of experience from other counties or other states), effectively lumping veteran teachers in with college graduates in terms of pay.
For those lucky enough to find another teaching job in the midst of nearly $2 billion in education budget cuts, the flogging is just beginning. Each district is required to draft an end-of-term exam for each course, including elective and "specials" classes, many of which meet once per week or less. In addition, 51% of a teacher's evaluation is based on data (read: test scores) from the yearly Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test, or FCAT (affectionately known as the Florida Child Abuse Test). Teachers whose subjects are not tested, such as music and arts teachers, are evaluated based on the score of the whole school, effectively holding them accountable for 100% of the student population when they only actually teach about 10%.
Supporters of the bill claim that it holds teachers accountable for students' learning gains. Even though there are numerous studies that clearly demonstrate the fallacies of standardized testing, a little common sense goes a long way. In a county struggling to come to terms with thousands of home foreclosures, an unemployment rate upwards of 14%, and an epidemic of homeless children, how much could reasonably be expected of a twelve-year-old child that has to walk two miles to his home (if he has one) at the end of a school day, then has to pick up his little sister from the bus stop, and then has to make a dinner of expired food pantry donations because his single mother is working two jobs to make ends meet? With what children face on a daily basis, is there any logical reason why we should expect children to care about a once-per-year test when they don't know where their next meal is coming from?
And to take that point even further, is there any logical reason why a scientifically invalid means of academic assessment, made even more irrelevant by a child's lack of interest, should be used to evaluate and pay an adult professional?
Rick Scott claims that his system will recruit and reward good teachers. If mass lay-offs of quality teachers, salary cuts, and unrealistic evaluations are his idea of rewards, maybe he ought to start "rewarding" himself and the people that pull his strings.
Amanda Molé is a certified professional educator and worked in Hernando County for 2 1/2 years.
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