High impact

Recently, I received a letter from the education commissioner congratulating me for being “one of the highest impact teachers in the state!” However, this achievement doesn’t earn me one cent.

Meanwhile, the Best & Brightest Scholarship Program, which is based in part on a teacher’s college entrance exam score, has awarded millions of dollars.

I had a measurable positive effect on my students’ education, and I’m not getting any money. Yet, if I had scored well enough on a test I took almost 25 years ago that has no definitive connection to my students’ education, I’d get thousands of dollars. That’s absurd!

The Best & Brightest money should go to teachers who are actually providing a genuine, quantifiable benefit to their students’ education. If you’re a Florida legislator, you should talk some sense into your fellow legislators.

This story was originally published April 26, 2017 at 9:16 PM with the headline "High impact."