Welcome to

Seventeen Florida teachers spent 6 months working with the non profit Center for Teaching Quality.

The group is working on ways to best share “best practices” among teachers. It is also recommending that state lawmakers not move forward with a controversial merit pay plan that sets teacher pay based on FCAT scores. Barnett Berry says using the FCAT scores is too volatile.

“Measuring teachers on a value added rating using the FCAT is very similar to measuring  your doctors performance based on your blood pressure rating,”  says Berry. “Blood pressure readings fluctuate, there are many different causes for it, and there are many different sorts of approaches you need to take to modify that blood pressure”.

Florida’s 2010 Teacher of the Year, Megan Allen,  who was part of the workgroup, says teachers know merit pay is in their future.

“We are not afraid of performance pay. We just want to make sure it is done right, with no unintended consequences for our favorite people, our students,” says Allen.

The Merit pay legislation has cleared the first of three legislative committees in the Senate. A House bill is yet to be heard.