In February, Gov. Cuomo stood with state Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. and the heads of city and state teachers unions to announce agreement on a new evaluation system for teachers and principals. The new law was a groundbreaking accord that laid the foundation for a fair, responsible process to provide educators with constructive evaluations that can strengthen teaching and learning.
Nine months later, more than 600 school districts around the state have submitted evaluation plans, and Commissioner King has approved more than 250 of those plans. Unfortunately, New York City isn’t one of those districts.
This isn’t just about money, although the city stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars if it doesn’t have an approved plan in place by Jan. 17. And it’s not about a “gotcha” system to get rid of teachers. This is about giving teachers and principals the tools they need to strengthen their skills and improve their instruction.
Research and common sense tell us the best way to improve student performance is to make sure that every child is in a class headed by a great teacher and every school is run by a great principal.
Common sense tells us something else: Just like the rest of us, teachers and principals need objective feedback to get better at their jobs. An effective evaluation plan lets educators receive professional development tailored to their needs, and gives top practitioners the opportunity to serve as mentors for their colleagues.
That’s why the state Board of Regents included implementation of strong evaluation programs as a key pillar of its education-reform agenda.
It’s easy to point fingers and lay blame, but all that does is waste time — and time is the one thing we cannot get back for our students.
Some of the debate has been over the use of student test scores to measure teacher performance. The complaint is that test scores don’t give full measure of a teacher’s performance. That’s true: Student test scores are only one measure of an effective evaluation system. But they are an essential measure.
The new law limits the use of state student-growth scores to 20 percent of evaluations, with another 20 percent of the score derived from locally negotiated objective measures. The remaining 60 percent is negotiated between the district and the local unions, and there are a number of options (e.g., supervisor observation, peer and student review, professional development) that can be adopted.
The student-growth scores provided by the state for teacher evaluations are adjusted for factors such as students who are English Language Learners, students with disabilities and students living in poverty. When used right, growth data from student assessments provide an objective measurement of student achievement and, by extension, teacher performance.
We should never judge an educator solely by test scores, but we shouldn’t completely disregard student performance and growth either.
The city has made significant improvements in its graduation rate, but there are still too many students who don’t graduate from high school. And of those who do graduate, nearly four out of five don’t have the skills and knowledge to succeed in college or a career.
The number of students needing remedial work at CUNY — paying for high-school courses in college — is staggering. And students taking those remedial courses are far less likely to finish their degrees.
Our students, our economy and our society cannot afford to continue down this road to nowhere.
The bottom line is that we need to make a bold, systemic change to help all of New York’s students graduate high school ready for college and careers. And an effective evaluation plan (built on objective measures, such as student-growth scores on standardized testing, and subjective measures, such as classroom observations) that provides constructive feedback and appropriate professional development is a vital piece of that change.
Change is never easy. But it is necessary. Hundreds of districts and local unions large and small across the state have found a way to get this done. It’s frustrating that the state’s largest district still can’t find a way to reach some common ground.
We’d never accept this kind of result from our students.
Merryl H. Tisch is the chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents.