INDIANAPOLIS | Legislation linking Indiana teacher pay to student performance is on its way to Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, who is expected to sign it into law.
The Republican-controlled Indiana Senate on Monday agreed with changes made by the Republican-controlled House to Senate Bill 1 and voted 36-13 to send the merit pay proposal to the governor.
If enacted, teachers would be rated every year as either highly effective, effective, improvement necessary or ineffective, based "significantly" on student performance on standardized exams.
A teacher rated ineffective or improvement necessary would not receive a pay raise or increment increase the following year if still employed. The additional money that would otherwise be paid to those teachers would go instead to teachers rated effective or highly effective.
Each school corporation may develop its own teacher evaluation standard but must include student performance measures.
Republican State Superintendent Tony Bennett said the teacher rating system "makes Indiana the nation's leader in meaningful educator evaluations that reward excellence and encourage continual growth and improvement."
The legislation also prohibits a student from being instructed two years in a row by two different teachers rated ineffective, limits teacher raises based solely on additional degrees or years of service and includes a stricter student attendance requirement.