Best and Brightest...Not so Much

So, it's official. 

I found out today that I do not qualify for Florida's Best & Brightest Teacher Scholarship. I am not one of the "Best & Brightest." The scholarship, which is actually a bonus, is the brainchild of Erik Fresen (R-Miami) of Florida's House. The program, with a total price tag of $44 million, rewards teachers with high SAT or ACT scores. Brand new teachers with test scores in the 80th percentile or higher automatically qualify. Teachers with at least one year of experience also have to be rated highly effective according to their school district's evaluation systems. Now, to be clear, the scores that have to be in the 80th percentile and above are the teacher's personal SAT/ACT scores...the tests they took to get into college.

Here are the teachers this program leaves out: (1) teachers who started last year but didn't work long enough to get a complete evaluation, (2) teachers who never took the SAT or ACT, (3) teachers who couldn't find their old score reports and couldn't secure them from the College Board or ACT, (4) excellent teachers who didn't have great scores in high school, (5) teachers who work in Districts that have low numbers of "highly effective teachers, and (6) a bunch of others I am not thinking of. 

I don't qualify for the bonus because of math. I had great scores in high school; I dug through boxes in the attic to find my scores and turned them in. I did earn a "highly effective" rating on my observations (completed by my former Assistant Principal and Principal). However, because I taught a group of International Baccalaureate students last year, their test scores don't count towards my evaluation. Some AP scores did count for me (I also taught AP English Language), but my overall evaluation brought me in at a 3.253. To get "highly effective" and the bonus, I would have to earn a 3.3. 

Funny story...3.253, rounded to the tenths place, is 3.3. My District, though, is refusing to round. This is despite having a remarkably low percentage of teachers earning a "highly effective" rating, especially when compared to neighboring (and competitor) counties. You would think this District (Broward) would be interested in getting as many teachers as possible qualified. Because when the numbers come out and a huge chunk of teachers from Dade and Palm Beach earn the bonus, what will perspective teachers do? Where would you go?

The funniest thing is this: I am not really sure where to focus my frustration. Who deserves more of my anger? Is it the short-sighted legislature that simply refuses to fully fund education in Florida? Is it the specific legislator who proposed this idea, who saw this program as a viable option? Is it the education reformers who actually believe in merit-based pay and value-added models? Is it the School Board and Superintendent of Broward who, despite the potential power of the District, are eager to please and overly compliant whenever the state issues any edict? Is it Arne Duncan and President Obama who have doubled-down (until recently) on the A-word in education: accountability?

There is a lot of anger to go around. A lot of unfairness. A lot of frustration. Maybe everyone deserves a little bit of it. I can't help thinking, though, that the best approach is to focus the anger into an effort to make change at whatever level I can. Maybe that means looking to local elections, local offices, local changes that can be made more easily. And then working from there. So look out; I am angry, awake, and aware...and ready for action...even if I am not one of the "best and brightest."