Valerie Strauss reports that Florida’s legislature may blow away another $44 million on a program that has been called “the worst and dumbest” in the state. This is the “best and brightest” bonus for teachers who got high SAT and ACT scores when they were in high school.
I earlier reported that the Florida Education Association has sued to block this program. But the Legislature evidently has fallen for the idea, even though it lacks a scintilla of evidence for its efficacy.
Strauss writes:
It turns out that about 5,200 teachers qualified and will get the bonuses soon — about 3 percent of Florida’s 170,000 eligible classroom instructors, the Sentinel reported, but there isn’t enough money to pay them all. One teacher not on the list: Florida’s teacher of the year, who was feted last summer at a black-tie event with Gov. Rick Scott.
And now, Florida lawmakers want to extend the program to go beyond one year. In fact, the state House education committee recently approved a bill to do just that. So this nonsense could easily last more than one year and waste more than $44 million.
Teachers who never took the SAT or the ACT don’t qualify for the bonus, nor do veteran teachers who can’t locate the scores of tests that they took many years ago. This isn’t merit pay or performance pay. It is a signing bonus for bright young people who make no commitment to stay.
This is a giveaway to Teach for America, the bright young kids who will get a $10,000 bonus before they start teaching, then leave after two or three years.
It is the “worst and dumbest” idea yet. At least in Florida.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Off-topic, but here’s Hillary saying she’s going to close every school that doesn’t perform “above average”: https://preaprez.wordpress.com/2015/12/23/random-thoughts-averages/
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And here’s Peter Greene’s take: http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/12/clintons-math-problem.html#comment-form
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Thank you for sharing Dienne. I am glad someone noticed that Hillary let the (fat) cat out of the bag!
I am cross-posting Fred’s post on as many Bernie FB pages that I can. Anyone else who can help seed this information, please do.
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“Lake Belowbegone”
Belowbegone
Is school reform
With everyone
Above the norm
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Well, what does Hillary’s good friend and buddy Randi Weingarten think of this plan? Way to hold Hillary’s feet to the fire and get some leverage out of your endorsements, AFT and NEA!
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Rani Weingarten is holding Hillary’s feet to the foot massager
Hillarybilly that is. Set a spell, Take your shoes off.
Y’all come back now, y’hear?.
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No Hillary 3 me.
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Meant No Hillary 4 me. Thanks, Dienne and others. We cannot forget.
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More of the New Nonsense … provided by those who know the least, talk the most, and garner the most influence. The Know-It-All class strikes again.
This asinine supposition that high SAT or ACT scores produce superior teachers would be hilarious if it wasn’t so jokey-dumb.
Successful teachers have a blend of characteristics … in the proper proportions … that do, in fact, set them apart from others. Yes, being a nimble thinker is of genuine importance … but that’s hardly the extent of the traits that mark a master teacher.
If I were to list all of the characteristics here, this would go on forever. But those in the profession know full-well the essentials of an effective teacher … and high scores on some bubble test in one’s late acne-years is certainly NOT among them.
Anecdotally, the finest teachers I encountered during my 34 year career were, for the most part, products of very modest post-secondary colleges. There were a few Ivy Leaguers sprinkled in my experience, but not-a-one could hold a candle to some of these gifted teachers who simply learned their craft with a certain seriousness and purpose.
Over the years, they never stopped polishing every aspect of their classroom performance … making certain that their humanistic talents were as well honed as their academic skills. They understood that a master teacher is the complete package … and they every element of good teaching is ever in need of constant attention.
Those elite school products learned at the knees of these “modestly” educated masters … and soon realized that the real world of teaching has less ivy and more concrete than they ever imagined.
Here, the Florida legislature is again awash in the superfluous … thinking that a monied-bonus for these supposed would-be super-teachers is just the ticket to educational success for kids across the state. It is such numbing nonsense that I feel stenchy just commenting on the shallowness of this junk.
Why don’t they ever just have lunch with a few crowds of classroom teachers … the folks who make this entire system hum … and ask them what should be done? And how it should be done. And why it should be done?
I guess that’ll never happen because that would suggest that legislators would be admitting that they don’t have all the answers … and that sort of modesty just isn’t in wonderful supply among politicians anywhere.
Denis Ian
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“Worst Ideas all the way down”
Florida’s worst idea
Is resting on another
And what is very clear
Is that one had a mother
“The Best of the Worst”
The best of the worst
Is yet to come
With Florida first
In line for dumb
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What if a person never took these tests, but nonetheless performed well in college and provides competent or even meritorious service to his or her school district?
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Then they obviously don’t work for Teach for America and therefore are ineligible for the great giveaway.
Those who didn’t take the test, can’t get access to their scores because they can’t be located, or didn’t qualify can take the test now.
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Not that it matters, but it’s also completely contradictory to the oft-repeated ed reform slogan that they are not “all about the tests”.
Sure they are. They believe an SAT or ACT is a proxy for value.
Thank goodness all employers don’t abide by this ridiculous and reductive measure for employee value. There would be huge numbers of valuable and worthwhile people were consigned to the “bottom of the barrel”, including one of my sons.
For such allegedly “innovative” and “disruptive” people they’re rigidly conventional when ranking human beings.
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Just a reminder that Arne Duncan also adopted this fad:
http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/parent-voices-world-class-education
He read a book (or heard about one) and decided that was sufficient basis to promote this nation wide.
I don’t think this is “critical thinking” or “rigorous”.
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We should have a class in public schools where we teach children how fad-following, intellectually lazy politicians are so easily swayed that a line in a popular book causes them to run and draft laws that apply to hundreds of thousands of people and cost millions of dollars:
“There’s a new book out called “The Smartest Kids in the World, and How They Got That Way.” The author, Amanda Ripley, found an interesting way to compare American schools with those in top-performing countries. She spent time with American students who did a year of school abroad, and with students from other countries who went to school in the United States.”
Like a “good, bad example” of rigor 🙂
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Broward County schools is going to pay $510K to the College Board to pay for every 11th grader to take the SAT on one day during school hours (even if the parents can afford it). One of the benefits is that it feeds into a program called Naviance and will allow the district to track the students through college.
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Broward County Schools is the most mismanaged, corrupt and inept District in all of Florida. I know I worked for those crooks for many years.
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Isn’t this just another gift for TFAs? Yes. it is.
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Yes, this really is the “dumbest” thing I have ever heard of. Look at all the losers in the world who had high SAT or ACT scores when they were in High School.
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