A federal appeals court has upheld a Florida law that requires teacher-performance evaluations to be based in part on student-test scores.
The three-judge panel last month upheld the 2011 measure that requires the state education commissioner to devise a formula to measure individual-student-learning growth on a state test that covers English and mathematics. The statute provides that half of a teacher’s evaluation be based on such a formula.
Several teachers and three local teachers’ unions sued the state and three districts, arguing that the policies arbitrarily and illogically evaluated teachers based either on the test scores of students or subjects they did not teach. The court took note of the fact that Florida has since amended the law to give districts more flexibility in developing ways to measure student performance in subjects and grades not covered by state tests.
