Central Florida teachers’ unions unhappy with FSA executive order

Executive order relieves students of FSA requirements, not teachers

News 6 | by Lauren Cervantes | April 12, 2021

Teachers feel left out when it comes to the state’s executive order that waives the required assessments for students, but still holds teachers accountable for those scores.

That’s what both the Osceola County Education Association and Brevard Federation of Teachers told News 6.

“It would be nice if the same compassion that we’re showing for our students were shown to teachers, educators, and paraprofessionals,” Lare Allen, President of the Osceola County Education Association said.

Allen said while teachers are happy for their students, the state’s executive order regarding Florida Statewide Assessments, or FSA, doesn’t mention teachers.

“It doesn’t address teachers; as far as I know, it does not address teachers at all,” Allen said.

Something echoed by the Vice President of the Brevard Federation of Teachers, Vanessa Skipper.

“That aspect was noticeably absent from the executive order. We can only hope that the Governor and the Commissioner of Education are going to come back out and hold teachers harmless as well,” Skipper said.

She said she’d like to see the FSA scores used as a baseline this year, given the unusual circumstances of the pandemic.

Skipper added that the scores can impact a teacher’s pay.

“Teachers are scored both by their in-classroom observations, and their evaluation by the principal, and also a third of their evaluations are tied to test scores, and in addition to that, that’s how raises are based as well if you score highly effective you get 100% of the raise, if you score effective you get 75% of that raise,” Skipper said.

Photo: Screenshot at News 6 video.