Teachers in Florida have filed a federal lawsuit claiming the state’s new teacher evaluation system is unfair because it partly rates their job performance on test scores of students they don’t know and subjects they don’t teach.

In Florida as well as Tennessee and Washington, D.C., educators who teach subjects not covered by tests, such as art and physical education, or who teach grades where students aren’t tested are evaluated using the test scores of other teachers’ students.

The Florida lawsuit names the state education commissioner, the state Board of Education and three school districts. It cites the case of Kim Cook, who teaches at Irby Elementary, a school with kindergarten through 2nd grade.

The local school board decided to evaluate Irby teachers by the test scores of all 4th- and 5th-grade students at another elementary school.

“I never met or instructed the students at Alachua Elementary,” said Cook, one of seven teachers who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Washington Post, April 16