Michelle Rhee

The chairman of the Senate’s education committee is setting the stage for a lengthy debate over teacher pay by inviting former D.C. public schools chancellor Michelle Rhee to testify before his committee next week.

State Sen. Steve Wise, R-Jacksonville, who filed legislation late Monday that would partially base teacher salary bumps on test scores and allow school boards to put new hires on one-year contracts, has invited Rhee to appear before the Senate PreK-12 Education Committee to talk about her experience in trying to change teacher tenure and pay in the Washington public schools in an effort to boost student test scores.

“I’m interested in hearing from her,” Wise said, noting that unlike him, Rhee is a Democrat. “It’s kind of interesting because kids -- I don’t think the kids are Republican or Democrat. They’re just kids.”

Rhee gained fame, admirers and plenty of enemies in her attempt to shake up the D.C. public schools under former Mayor Adrian Fenty, who lost his re-election bid this fall. She fired long-serving public school teachers who she thought were not performing well and pushed a plan that gave high-performing teachers more money if they agreed to give up tenure.

Rhee has become a national figure in the effort to make teachers more accountable for the performance of students, and her work was profiled in the pro charter school documentary “Waiting for Superman,” which Florida lawmakers viewed in December at a private showing in Tallahassee.

She is also serving as an informal adviser to new Gov. Rick Scott, who is a backer of teacher performance pay.

Wise has been stockpiling data and public testimony for several months as he tries to craft legislation setting out a new method of teacher pay. A bill creating merit pay passed by the Legislature last year led scores of teachers around the state to rally against it. The bill was ultimately vetoed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist.

The new bill (SB 736) would grandfather in current teacher pay plans, but set up new, merit-based ones for teachers hired after July 1, 2014. It would require districts to set up evaluation systems that rate teachers as "highly effective," "effective," "needs improvement" or "unsatisfactory." Half of those evaluations would be based on test scores. The legislation allows the state commissioner of education to develop a formula, to be approved by the State Board of Education, that would measure student growth on standardized exams. The formula can consider factors such as student attendance, disciplinary records, student disabilities and English language proficiency. The formula may not set different expectations for student growth based on gender, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status.