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Three teachers from three counties, Escambia, Alachua, and Hernando, have filed a lawsuit in Federal Court, challenging a 2011 law that tells districts how to evaluate teacher performance.

All three are former teachers of the year. The say they are not receiving equal protection under the 14th amendment because they are being measured by test scores of students they have never taught. Florida Education President Andy Ford calls the system absurd.

“It’s very compelling that when you have teachers who have been honored by their faculty and in their districts as being a Teacher of the Year to have an unsatisfactory evaluation or evaluation that’s less than perfect. Based on student test scores of kids you’ve never taught  in a grade level you never taught.  It is just absolutely absurd and we need a new system” says Ford.

Beth Ann Moore is a high school teacher in Hernando County and says her evaluation is based on students she has never taught. “Seems like I should be evaluated on students I teach and the subjects that I teach. So that way I am truly getting an evaluation of my teaching abilities and also seeing the growth of my students in my subject area” says Moore.

A second plantif in the case is Kim Cook. She teaches grades one through three in Gainesville. Cook filed the lawsuit challenging the states system of evaluating teachers because her scores were based on students at another school that she has never seen. “And they were students I’ve never met at a completely different school. I’ve had no part in instructing them whatsoever. ”

Reporter: “So you have been evaluated on based on performance of students you’ve never taught.” “That’s correct” says the elementary school teacher.

The case was filed in Federal Court in Gainesville.