It’s crunch time.
The city and its teachers union have just six weeks to reach a deal on a new teacher-evaluation system — or else forgo nearly $300 million in public-school funds.
StudentsFirstNY, a teacher-quality and school-choice advocacy group, is launching a $500,000-plus citywide TV-ad and social-media campaign today to pressure both sides to ink a deal.
In legislation passed over the summer, Gov. Cuomo set a Jan. 17 deadline for the state’s nearly 700 school districts to fill in the details of a teacher-rating system that for the first time judges instructors in part on their students’ test scores.
As of last week, 633 districts had submitted plans to the state Education Department for approval — with 274 getting the OK — but the city has yet to do so.
“Getting this done is well within reach,” said Micah Lasher, a former legislative director for the Bloomberg administration who heads StudentsFirstNY. “It will happen if the folks responsible for making it happen feel they have no choice but to do so. That’s why we’re doing this.”
The group’s 30-second TV spot features some city teachers and parents touting the benefits of a rigorous evaluation system, including that it would help struggling instructors improve.
Nearly every stakeholder agrees that the current rating system — which gives teachers the equivalent of a thumbs-up, thumbs-down review — doesn’t provide useful feedback.
The new system created by the state would put teachers into four rating categories: highly effective, effective, developing and ineffective.
The city and United Federation of Teachers have to hammer out the details — such as how many times principals can observe teachers in action and which tests other than the state tests will be used to measure student gains.
“Every job you have has an evaluation system,” said East New York mom Mayfield Goddard, a city worker who’s had kids in charter, Catholic and public schools and who appears in the ad.
“Why shouldn’t [teachers] be evaluated when they have our most precious commodity in their lives every day?”
Another advocacy group, Educators 4 Excellence — which dubs itself the independent voice for city teachers — rallied yesterday at City Hall..
“New York City’s educators and students are being pushed toward our own version of a fiscal cliff,” declared group member and math teacher Jemal Graham, who works at Eagle Academy for Young Men in Queens.
“If we allow ourselves to be pushed off of that cliff, it means losing almost $300 million in funding for our schools.”
Teacher Susan Keyock of Metropolitan High School in the South Bronx said the evaluations should consider student reviews of educators and in-class observations from education experts.
But several outraged teachers crashed the rally to criticize the group for not putting enough pressure on the administration to reach a deal.
“The Department of Education really hasn’t done anything to try to negotiate,” said Stuart Kaplan, who teaches at the High School for Law and Public Service in Washington Heights.
City and union officials say they’re having productive talks but have declined to discuss what roadblocks remain.
The union has expressed concern that the system, which creates a faster process for removing teachers who get poor ratings for two consecutive years, would be used solely to punish teachers rather than help them.
Additional reporting by Sally Goldenberg