Metro

Bloomberg vows to call all parents to disclose teacher evaluations

Stung by Albany’s decision to limit the disclosure of teacher evaluations, Mayor Bloomberg counterattacked today by announcing an extraordinary effort to call hundreds of thousands of parents to deliver the data directly.

“Let me tell you what we’re going to do,” Bloomberg declared on his weekly WOR radio show.

“We are going to have our schools call every single parent. We’re talking about fourth to eighth grade… We will tell you, you are entitled to this information and if you want it say yes right now and we will send it to you.”

When radio host John Gambling asked if the evaluation scores couldn’t be delivered on the spot, the mayor reflected only a moment before picking up on the idea.

“I think we can give it to them right on the phone as well,” he said. “So we’ll make sure every parent gets the information whether they would have called or not.”

In a victory for the powerful teacher unions, Albany blocked the public from getting access to teacher evaluations and required parents to request the information.

But only the scores of teachers instructing their kids that year would be available to parents.

The evaluations of other teachers — including those who might teach their children the following year — would be shielded.

“You’re already in the middle of the year and you can’t move your child then,” the mayor pointed out. “It’s of no real use.”

Nevertheless, he said he’s determined that parents receive whatever information is available.