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Julie Jordan, director of the Research and Curriculum Unit for Workforce Development, Vocational and Technical Education at Mississippi State University, discusses her department's report that suggests basing merit pay on Mississippi's new teacher evaluation system, which is slowly being rolled out, following a Friday, July 27, 2012, news conference in Jackson, Miss. Gov. Phil Bryant wants to end Mississippi's statewide system of seniority-based teacher raises. Instead, the Republican governor wants each of the state's 151 school districts to design their own system to pay teachers according to student performance. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Andy Baxter of the Southern Regional Education Board made a presentation Tuesday to members of the House Education and Appropriations committees on general principles of how an evaluation system should work, but only briefly touched on Mississippi's plans.
House Education Chairman John Moore, a Brandon Republican, agreed that many lawmakers don't know about those plans.
The state is still recruiting districts to pilot the teacher evaluation system this school year. Officials plan to examine results and do another year of field testing before a statewide rollout in 2014.