More teachers get SAT bonuses

Lawmakers may eliminate program

A lot more teachers in South Florida are making money off their old SAT scores.

This year, 916 teachers in the region qualified for the controversial “Best and Brightest” teacher bonus program, up from 625 last year. They are receiving bonus checks of $6,400 this month.

But it may be their last payout.

Lawmakers this session may overhaul or scrap the statefunded 2-year-old program, which has faced ridicule and legal challenges because it rewards teachers based on how well they scored on the college entrance tests they took in high school. Some proposals would replace those SAT and ACT scores with teacher certification exam scores or give bonuses to teachers at low-performing schools. If no action is taken this spring, the program will end.

For now, teachers who qualified say they weren’t about to pass up free money.

“Financially, it’s fantastic,” said Liza Asch, a physical education teacher at Equestrian Trails Elementary in Wellington. “But the way it’s been done is ridiculously stupid. I’ve been teaching for 16 years. What dif-

ference does it make what I got on my SAT 20 years ago?”

The number of teachers who benefited in Broward County [198] and Palm Beach County [495] is double from last year, while Miami Dade’s teachers [222] declined slightly. Statewide, about 7,200 teachers qualified, a third more from the previous year.

“I believe people are more aware of it. It was such a huge conversation piece last year,” said Anna Fusco, president of the Broward Teachers Union.

Nicole Adamo, an English teacher at Don Estridge High-Tech Middle in Boca Raton, said she heard about the program last year and was eligible, but she waited too long to get copies of her old test scores.

“I definitely dropped the ball last year. But this year, I was on it,” she said. “As soon as I heard they were going to continue the program, I made sure I got my scores.”

Another factor in the increase is that more teachers qualified. In addition to the SAT or ACT requirement, teachers must be rated highly effective on their evaluations. A third of the region’s teachers received top scores in their most recent evaluations, up from 29 percent the previous year.

Robert Snow, a math teacher at Deerfield Beach High, said his evaluation improved from effective to highly effective this past year, making him eligible.

“I’m certainly enjoying the fact that as a result of my good academics in school, I earned the bonus,” Snow said. “But do I feel the bonus is fair overall? No.”

The Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers union, says the program discriminates against minorities, who historically haven’t done as well as whites on the exams, and against those who never took the exams or took them too long ago to access official score reports. It filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is pending.

“I think there should be no bonuses,” Fusco said. “Just put the money into salaries so we can pay teachers better. They shouldn’t have to go through obstacles and an application process to get this money.”