Opinion

Rating teachers (not)

Will New York ever be in a position to fire bad teachers? That’s become more unlikely, now that Gov. Cuomo is questioning the new Common Core tests, which serve as the basis for weeding out ineffective teachers.

He raised it this way: “If you said Common Core testing was premature for the students, and you just halted the grades on the transcripts” — as Albany did — “then what is your opinion about the impact of Common Core testing on teacher evaluations?”

The governor has not yet called for a halt in the use of student scores to rate teachers, but it sure looks like this is where it’s headed.

Think about it: The fight for meaningful teacher evaluations has raged for years. Teachers unions fiercely oppose the idea because they don’t want their members held accountable. On the other hand, the Bloomberg folks — and The Post — have championed the cause, arguing that no child deserves a bad instructor.

In 2010, Albany allowed teachers to be rated partly on the basis of student test scores. It was a good sign but quickly proved a sham. Calling the law “unworkable by design,” Cuomo crafted new rules in 2012. His new plan, he vowed, would “make New York a national leader in holding teachers accountable” and “transform our state’s public-education system.” Oops. It too proved flawed, because it gave teachers unions veto power over local plans.

Last year, the state finally worked out a system for the city and tweaked some of the statewide rules. We were skeptical: The system could only be called a success, we said, when “the number of fired teachers climbs notably.”

Our doubts were justified just a few months later, when the state reported the results of new teacher evaluations for districts outside the city. The report found 92% of the state’s teachers rated “highly effective” or “effective” — even though only 31% of the state’s third- through eighth-graders were proficient in math and reading.

Fast forward to today. The Common Core tests are under attack. In response, Cuomo is publicly questioning whether they can be used for teacher evaluations.

If this pattern sounds familiar, it is. Our guess is that New Yorkers will get a system that lets us fire bad teachers about the same time we get . . . fracking.