Teachers with low ratings more likely to work in high-poverty schools, new report shows

Teachers who received bad performance ratings in the past school year were likelier to be teaching in high-poverty schools, or in schools with high percentages of black, Hispanic or low-achieving students, a new analysis found.

The StudentsFirstNY report on the 3.2 percent of teachers were rated “unsatisfactory” — known as a “U-rating” — for the 2011-12 school year found large differences in how they were distributed throughout the school system.

StudentsFirstNY, part of a national organization founded by former Washington D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, has been advocating largely on teacher quality and school choice issues.

One the high end, two schools – PS 4 in The Bronx and Mathematics, Science Research and Technology Magnet HS in Queens – had one-third of their teachers hit with a so-called U-rating that year.

The top 10 percent of schools — 77 of the 1,509 schools included in the study — had nearly 19 percent of their teachers rated unsatisfactory.

At the same time, 748 out of the 1,509 principals didn’t issue a single U-rating in 2011-12.

The analysis found that students in high-poverty schools were at least three times more likely to be taught by a U-rated teacher than were students in low-poverty schools.

“An ineffective teacher in any classroom is a failure of the system at the expense of students,” said StudentsFirstNY Executive Director Micah Lasher, a former legislative liaison for Mayor Bloomberg. “A concentration of ineffective teachers serving specific student populations is an injustice.”

Among the group’s eight recommendations, including having the city and teachers’ union reach a deal on a new teacher evaluation system by next week’s Jan. 17 deadline, are financial incentives for good teachers who stay in high-needs schools.

Failing to reach a deal by the deadline would cost the city at least $250 million in state education aid.

StudentsFirstNY also calls for a cap on the number of ineffective teachers who are allowed to remain at one school from year to year.

The city currently does have at least two programs that offers incentives for teachers who agree to work in high needs schools – one that offers recruitment and tuition reimbursements, and the other that offers $15,000 in housing support in return for a 3-year commitment.

The teachers’ union has also said that high concentrations of U-rated teachers can be caused by other factors — such as antagonism between a principal and his or her teachers.

A 2011 investigation by the Department of Education found that the current principal at Fordham HS for the Arts – where 20 percent of teachers received a U-rating in 2011-12 – tried to force out teachers she didn’t like by giving them bad ratings without actually having observed their teaching.