Empowering Effective Teachers is an initiative started by the School District of Hillsborough County, Florida, in hopes of promoting improvements in education by increasing effective teaching through new evaluations or teacher assessments and salary scales as well as new teacher training programs and recruitment. This initiative developed through a partnership and grant with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The early phases of this new initiative rolled out in 2010 when teachers observation evaluation form was radically redeveloped into a complex rubric with four overall areas of focus—Planning and Preparation, Classroom Environment, Instruction, and Professional Responsibilities—each with multiple, specific sub points. Each point has four possible categories—Requires Action, Progressing, Accomplished, and Exemplary—in which the teacher can fall.
These new evaluations have caused much uproar from numerous teachers in the district but mainly due to way the classroom evaluations are executed. In addition to the changes in the classroom observation rubric, 40% of the teacher’s final evaluation score now is determined by calculating students’ learning growth from one year to the next. This change has happened not only in Hillsborough County but also in all of Florida, as well as other states and counties throughout the United States.
In response to the increased demands placed on teachers by this new evaluation system, teachers who “opt in” to the new system will receive a pay increase. The initial increase for most is at least a few thousand dollars, with those earning higher evaluation scores (level 4 and 5) receiving an additional $2000 or $3000 bonus each year, respectively. This new pay scale was released only toward the end of 2013, and all teachers hired before 2011 have a few months to evaluate the new pay scale for deciding if they will “opt in.” Teachers who do not “opt in” are not exempt from the new evaluation system. They are still subject to the same classroom observation and inclusion of students’ test scores are other teachers; however, their pay will not be affected by their final evaluation score.