New Florida law: Teachers can’t be evaluated on students they don’t have

In the you-can’t-make-up-this-stuff category: Florida just passed a law making it illegal to evaluate teachers on standardized test scores of students they never taught. If you are wondering why such a law would be necessary, here’s why:

For two years, many teachers were actually being evaluated by the test scores of students they had never even seen much less taught, under a school reform law that included a requirement that Florida teachers be evaluated on student test scores.

In April, seven teachers, along with the National Education Association and the Florida Education Association, filed a lawsuit challenging the system, arguing that it was unfair and violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clause of the Constitution.

One of the teachers is Kim Cook, a teacher in Alachua, Fla., who, as this post explains, was evaluated at Irby Elementary, a K-2 school where she works and was named Teacher of the Year last December. Forty percent of her evaluation was based on test scores of students at Alachua Elementary, a school into which Irby feeds, whom she never taught.

more . . . http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/06/16/new-florida-law-teachers-cant-be-evaluated-on-students-they-dont-have/