FEA challenges state on performance pay rule
By Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida
THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, April 3, 2012......Arguing against what it calls "unbridled discretion," the Florida Education Association has challenged part of the state's plans for carrying out a controversial 2011 law that includes teacher performance pay.
The FEA and two teachers last week filed a challenge in the Division of Administrative Hearings, arguing that state education officials would overstep their legal authority in determining how school districts evaluate teachers.
The case centers on the somewhat-arcane details of a rule that was approved last week by the state Board of Education. Such rules are commonly used by state agencies to carry out laws and can be subject to legal challenges.
In its filing, the statewide teachers union said part of the rule "effectively grants DOE bureaucrats complete, unbridled, even potentially discriminatory authority to approve or reject districts' proposed evaluation systems and/or their own evaluation system monitoring efforts, thereby impacting the performance evaluation requirements, evaluation processes and high-stakes evaluation outcomes for Florida's teachers."
But the Department of Education, in a document that went before the state board last week, said the proposed changes are part of a move to employee evaluations that "incorporate contemporary research in effective educational practices and student learning growth."
The rule challenge is another chapter in a long-running dispute between the FEA and the state about a 2011 law that was dubbed the "Student Success Act." That dispute also includes a pending circuit-court lawsuit in which the FEA argues the law violates constitutional collective-bargaining rights.
The law requires evaluation of teachers, partly based on student test scores, and ratings of "highly effective," "effective," "needs improvement" or "unsatisfactory." Ultimately, the ratings would affect such things as salary increases.
Anthony Demma, an FEA attorney, said the Division of Administrative hearings case does not challenge the overall law. Instead, it seeks to have an administrative law judge determine that the rule is invalid, which could force the state to make changes in the way it plans to oversee school-district evaluations of teachers.
The education commissioner is required by Dec. 1 to submit a report to the governor and legislative leaders about how school districts have put in place evaluation systems. Many school districts have started the process because of the federal Race to the Top program.
But the FEA argues that the new rule would give the Department of Education too big of a say in how evaluation systems would work. Administrative Law Judge John Van Laningham has scheduled a hearing for May 30 and May 31.
