{"id":24007,"date":"2015-09-29T07:22:57","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T11:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=24007"},"modified":"2015-09-29T09:47:32","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T13:47:32","slug":"florida-teachers-say-deadline-to-apply-for-new-bonuses-is-unfair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2015\/09\/29\/florida-teachers-say-deadline-to-apply-for-new-bonuses-is-unfair\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Teachers Say Deadline To Apply For New Bonuses Is Unfair"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Miami<\/a>

John O'Connor \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Miami teacher Brigette Kinney holds copies of her GRE scores and the state law creating the new teacher bonus program. She qualifies for the bonus -- up to $10,000, depending on how many teachers qualify -- but may not be able to compete the paperwork in time.<\/p><\/div>\n

Miami teacher Brigette Kinney said she doesn\u2019t always hear about school news when classes are out for the summer.<\/p>\n

So Kinney missed the word that lawmakers set aside $44 million for bonuses based on SAT and ACT scores during a special summer budget session<\/a>. Teachers who scored in the top 20 percent the year they took the exam and earned a \u201chighly effective\u201d teacher evaluation are eligible.<\/p>\n

But Kinney said she didn\u2019t learn about the bonuses until she returned to school in August — and that may have been too late.<\/p>\n

The deadline to apply for the scholarships is Thursday. Kinney meets the requirements, but she\u2019s not sure if her scores will arrive in time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told it would take two to four weeks to get my score, which I knew was going to be very tight\u201d said Kinney, who teaches English and design in the International Baccalaureate program at Ada Merritt K-8 center.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

She called back after three weeks and a supervisor told her SAT had been flooded with requests.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he told me that, frankly, there was no way I was going to get my score reports by October 1st<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Kinney took the SAT in 1988. She’s got her Graduate Record Examination scores — the entrance exam for graduate school. She even found IQ scores at her parents home. But teachers can only qualify for the bonuses with ACT or SAT scores \u2013 which excludes foreign-born teachers who never took the exams.<\/p>\n

Last week Kinney learned that she could submit college transcripts, but Florida State University couldn\u2019t get those to her before the October 1st<\/sup>, either.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: Florida State will release records to a third party, so Kinney is having a friend pick up copies Tuesday, scan them and email them to Kinney to submit.<\/p>\n

The companies which run ACT and SAT \u2013 the two biggest college entrance exams \u2013 say they\u2019ve been inundated by Florida teachers needing a copy of their scores.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a much higher volume of requests,\u201d said Ed Colby, spokesman for ACT. \u201cWe\u2019re working hard to meet the deadline.\u201d<\/p>\n

ACT is expediting transcript requests and sending them priority mail — for free — to make sure teachers receive them on time.<\/p>\n

Colby said that Florida is the only state he knows of paying teachers bonuses based on college entrance exam scores.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe volume of requests for archived score reports has been higher than usual this year,\u201d Jose Rios, a spokesman for The College Board, which runs the SAT, \u00a0said by email, \u201cso some requests may be taking longer to fulfill than indicated on the order form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida Department of Education spokeswoman Cheryl Etters said the agency can\u2019t do anything to change Thursday deadline because it\u2019s written into state law.<\/p>\n

Younger teachers can receive scores more quickly online. But Kinney said the deadline isn\u2019t fair for veteran teachers who have to wait for a paper copy.<\/p>\n

Efforts to reach Miami Rep. Erik Fresen, who proposed the scholarships, were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

If lots of teachers qualify, the bonuses could be much less than $10,000. But Kinney is a single mother and said the money could help pay for a master\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich is something that I\u2019ve wanted to do for a long time,\u201d she said, \u201cbut haven\u2019t been able to afford to do. And that would be a good investment in my salary permanently.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miami teacher Brigette Kinney said she doesn\u2019t always hear about school news when classes are out for the summer. So Kinney missed the word that lawmakers set aside $44 million for bonuses based on SAT and ACT scores during a special summer budget session. Teachers who scored in the top 20 percent the year they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":24008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[980,1107,1079],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24007"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24010,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24007\/revisions\/24010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}