Letter to the editor from a fellow teacher at my school

A test for teachers
By Chris Hamel
Special to the Star-Banner


Published: Sunday, April 4, 2010 at 6:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, April 2, 2010 at 6:57 p.m.


After spending nearly 29 years teaching in Marion County, I thought I had seen everything. This year's Legislature has proven me wrong. Instead of doing the courageous thing and working to find ways to better fund our schools, they have decided to devote their time and energy to undermining teachers.


Recently, the Florida Senate passed Senate Bill 6, and a companion bill, House Bill 7189 was introduced in the House. This bill's main objective is to do away with the current system we have for compensating teachers, based on years of experience and level of professional education. SB 6 replaces this common-sense system with one that will base a teacher's pay on standardized test scores of students.

If you think teachers already teach too much to the test, just wait until SB 6/HB 7189 is enacted.

If this bill becomes law, it will not only affect teachers, but every parent and student as well. Because our pay will now be tied to standardized tests like the FCAT, more pressure will be put on students to score well, because “my paycheck depends on it.”

Everyday, teachers see the damage “teach to the test” does to our students. If things aren't tested, they don't get taught.

One of other objectives of this bill is to eliminate tenure. The Legislature is spreading the myth that tenure is the reason we can't get rid of incompetent teachers.

Let me provide some clarification about tenure. First, tenure doesn't mean that I or any other teacher can't be fired, nor is it anything like the tenure that you typically think about when you hear the term (what college professors have.) It simply insures that a process must be followed. This protects teachers from a principal who wants to get rid of someone without a truly valid reason or from a vindictive parent. These basic protections exist for teachers in almost all 50 states.

The Legislature also wants the public to believe that there is a huge number of lousy teachers who just need to go. In all of my years in the profession I have never found this to be true. The overwhelming majority of teachers are hard working, dedicated, creative professionals. Most of the truly bad teachers I have encountered are no longer teaching.

As I think about this bill, I find that many issues of basic fairness crop up. For instance, since the beginning of the year, I have had a turnover of about 10 percent of my students. Is it fair for my evaluation to be based on students I have only had part of the year? What about media specialists, guidance counselors and deans? They don't even have classes of students to test. What about PE and the fine arts? Are we going to base their pay on how the students perform on testing for academic classes?

The students I teach face immense challenges and turmoil in their lives. I have students with parents in jail. Others tell me about the fighting that goes on every night at home. Most of my students come to school each day without breakfast. On any given day, my absentee rate runs from 8 to 10 percent. Should I be penalized because many of my students don't come to school?

In the end, the state wants to make my whole evaluation based on how my students score on a test. If this law passes, I can see a time when nobody will want to teach at a school like mine because of the challenges we face everyday.

In a time when finding and retaining qualified teachers has become a continual challenge, who is going to replace all of the “under-performing” teachers they hope to root out? How many of our best teachers will get disgusted and leave the profession? Unfortunately, there is not a large number of highly qualified people waiting to move in to take over (don't take my word for it, ask any principal.) If we want to attract talented, creative teachers out of college, this is going to make the profession look even less attractive.

In the end, my fear is that public schools will suffer a huge blow as well as the teaching profession because of SB 6/HB 7189.

The solution to the many issues that face our public schools doesn't involve singling out one group or another. Making our public schools better requires a comprehensive solution: more resources for our schools to do the challenging job they're charged with, more support for teachers, and more support services for parents and students. Together, as a community united for public education, we can do better