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Senate committee approves bill to expand teacher merit-pay eligibility
Summary
A Senate education committee advanced a bill clarifying evaluation rules so more Arkansas teachers can qualify for existing merit-pay funds.
Senator Jane English, District 13, and Department of Education staff told the Senate Education Committee on a bill to clarify eligibility for the state's teacher merit-pay program.
The bill, presented by Department of Education staff, would require an annual evaluation process for teachers who lack specific student-data measures so those educators are not excluded from merit-pay consideration. "We want to make sure more teachers are eligible and have the ability to qualify," Jacob Levy of the Department of Education said. "We have approximately — I'm gonna just round about — 35,000 teachers in the state of Arkansas. Last year, about 10% of those teachers received teacher merit pay, which was just over 3,000."
The bill’s sponsor and department staff said the change would rely on existing evaluation tools — observations and principal evaluations — to include teachers without direct student-growth data. Levy said the state previously allocated $10,000,000 for merit pay in the LEARNS program and that additional, unused funds designated for board certification recognition could be reallocated to increase the pool, bringing the total available to about $18,700,000.
Committee members asked for data and lists of previous merit-pay recipients; Levy said a list exists and that staff would provide the information to the committee. "If you would get that information to the staff, and they'll send that out to everybody," the committee chair said.
The committee voted to pass the bill. The record shows a motion to pass and a voice vote with members responding "aye." No recorded roll-call tally was provided in the transcript excerpt.
The bill would not create new funding but would change who can be evaluated for existing merit-pay dollars. Department staff said the intent is to recognize more teachers judged to be "highly effective" by observations and other evaluation measures even when student-data measures are not available.
Senator English and Department of Education staff said they will supply requested lists and additional details to committee staff following the hearing.
The committee advanced the bill to the next legislative stage.
