This weekend, we made history. After months of uncertainty and years of grappling with special interests, state Education Commissioner John King announced a landmark teacher-evaluation system that continues us down the path toward ensuring all 1.1 million New York City school children have great teachers in their classrooms.
We owe King a huge debt of gratitude. His plan is packed with reforms that will benefit kids in every borough, from including student surveys in teacher evaluations to empowering principals to effectively manage their schools to minimizing bureaucratic hurdles.
Students are the ultimate winners: Thanks to this evaluation plan, we can hold every teacher in every classroom to the highest standard.
This victory didn’t come without a fight. The teachers union battled at every turn to uphold the status quo and to bar any real reform. But that regressive agenda lost on every front.
First, the union tried to hold meaningful evaluations hostage in exchange for a big pay raise. The ploy failed. Then the union pushed for a “sunset provision” — a clause negating the law after a set time if it’s not renewed — that would undermine the integrity of an evaluation system and give the union bargaining power that it could use to further roll back reform in a new teachers contract. That drive also failed.
In fact, if the union had its way, already struggling school systems would only stand to get worse. In January, it shamefully blocked a deal on evaluations, costing city schools $250 million. Enough is enough.
Until now, most New York City teachers have been rewarded based on seniority or quantity of graduate education; neither has been shown to improve student achievement. Effective and ineffective teachers leave our schools at the same rate, because we had no means to differentiate one from another.
Now, we do. We can identify 1) the best teachers, who should be rewarded, 2) developing teachers, who should be supported, and 3) failing teachers, who should be removed from the classroom. We have the chance to foster a culture of excellence in our schools so our children have the best chance for educational success.
Teaching is a difficult profession; not everyone’s cut out for it. For the sake of our kids, we must be able to remove those people for whom teaching is not their strong suit.
To that end, New York City is now the only school district in the state with a “rebuttable presumption” legal standard for taking such action. This limits the opportunity for frivolous administrative wrangling, while still ensuring all teachers get due process. And it only happened because Mayor Bloomberg and the reform community demanded it.
This evaluation plan solidifies New York City’s status as a leader in improving schools: Leaders in the education-reform movement here called out the sunset game for what it was, enabling every school district in the state to now have permanent evaluations.
And, because Mayor Bloomberg wouldn’t give in to pressure from his would-be successors and others, the next mayor can demand new reforms in exchange for a new contract.
Everyone agrees that there is much work left to be done to get New York City schools where they need to be — but moving backward isn’t the way to get ahead.
This latest win for our kids builds on the substantial progress of the last decade: increases in the city’s graduation rate, expansion of quality school options for parents and a laser-like focus on ensuring education resources are placed where they belong — in the classroom. We must keep our eyes on the prize, maximizing education opportunities for our children, our future.
Now, we must turn our attention to implementing this system to produce the best results for our kids. The reform community will remain vigilant through the implementation period to ensure that finally, after years of delay, teachers will be properly evaluated, supported and held accountable.
Glen Weiner is executive director of StudentsFirstNY.