One version of an overhaul bill passed its first House subcommittee Wednesday.
It calls for the use of student test scores to help determine teacher pay and effectiveness, and the elimination of tenure, the practice that grants teachers with seniority certain job protections.
The proposal mirrors Senate Bill 736, which was introduced this month and passed the Senate Budget Committee on Wednesday.
State Rep. Erik Fresen, a Republican from Miami, said exceptions in the House bill for the Hillsborough school district are "perfectly paired up" with the Senate version.
SB 736 largely exempted Hillsborough from the reforms because the district is more than a year ahead of the rest of the state with its overhaul, financed in part by a $100 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
"They're not really being exempted," Fresen said, "because, in reality, they're already doing it."
Like SB 736, the House proposal requires districts to base 50 percent of teacher evaluations on student learning gains.
Hillsborough will be allowed to continue with its new evaluations, in which learning gains account for 40 percent. The new Hillsborough standard is in place this year.
The district, like others across the state, also can forge ahead with its own evaluation tools for courses that don't have annual assessments such as the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
These so-called value-added formulas are expected to debut in August.
They are necessary, education officials say, to help measure student learning gains in areas such as music, art and special education.
Hillsborough schools Superintendent MaryEllen Elia told members of the House K-20 Competitiveness Subcommittee, she appreciated that they took into account the work the district already is doing.
