By Fallan Patterson

Staff Writer

An overwhelming majority of Osceola County public school teachers were labeled as “effective” or “highly effective” under the state’s new evaluation system that will determine the educators’ pay based on merit.

In data release by the Florida Department of Education last week, 3,253 out of the Osceola County School District’s 3,493 teachers scored an “effective” or higher on the evaluations.

The evaluations are based on an average score of the combination of the teacher’s instructional practices in the classroom setting including developing lesson plans and the student growth factor, which is either the students’ score on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test or the overall school-wide score if the teacher doesn’t teach an FCAT-assessed subject.

In Osceola County, 262, or 8 percent, scored an “highly effective” on the evaluations and 2,991, or 97.6 percent, scored as “effective.”

The state overall had 22 percent of its teachers score as “highly effective” and 75 percent score as “effective.” In Orange County, 1.3 percent of its teachers earned the top label and 97.6 percent scored as “effective” and in Polk County, 8.7 percent of its teachers scored as “highly effective” with 91.3 percent earning the “effective” label.

Virginia Costa, director of Student Services and Instructional Improvement in Osceola County, said the district “proceeded with caution” in doing the evaluations as the kinks have not been worked out of the new system. That includes how the evaluations are not counted this year toward merit pay and the “huge” range of the “effective” score; teachers could score between 1.6 and 3.59 to earn that score.

“I imagine they’ll start to close that gap to make it more realistic,” Costa said. “Each district probably interpreted the law a certain way and every district has a different (teachers) union it negotiates with in a different way.”

As the merit pay evaluation system progresses, she expects the process to become more reflective of the educational needs in the state.

That includes improvement plans and additional professional development for those teachers who score below the “effective” ranking.

In Osceola County, 12 teachers earned the “needs improvement” label and another 20 educators who were hired by the district in the last three years scored the “developing” label.

Those teachers, Costa said, will receive additional assistance whether they’re new to the district or have been employed for years.

“It depends on their individual situation,” she said.

Two Osceola County teachers, one at Discovery Intermediate School and another at Kissimmee Elementary School, earned the lowest score of “unsatisfactory.”

They were two of 381, or .3 percent, of the 178,817 educators statewide who scored in the lowest category.

That score does not equate to an automatic pink slip, Costa said. Rather, it identifies the teachers in desperate need of starting an improvement plan or, if currently on a plan, being re-evaluated and striving for improvement in the next school year.

“More than likely, it’s something that is brought to the administration’s attention,” Costa said, adding teachers who score in the bottom have issues in both categories scored in the evaluation. “When you look at the numbers, they likely had low student growth and low instructional practices.”

Teachers are notified of their final score and must sign off on their evaluation.

The district did have 206 teachers who were not evaluated, which could have occurred for a number of reasons including educators on leave under the Family Medical Leave Act, those under investigation and teachers who were hired on temporary or short-term contracts.

Costa said the “vast majority” of teachers not evaluated were those with short-term contracts, meaning they had been hired after the first semester of the school year was completed.

Statewide, 27 percent of teachers were not evaluated.