Welcome to New York — where, like the children of the Garrison Keillor’s mythical Lake Wobegon, all our public-school teachers are above average.
That’s surely the conclusion to draw from the release of state teacher evaluation scores for the 2012-13 school year. Ninety-two percent of our teachers made it to the top two categories — “highly effective” or “effective.” Only 6 percent fell in the “ineffective” or “developing” categories.
Here’s the problem. This is the same year in which only 31 percent of New York students taught by these supposedly effective/highly-effective teachers were deemed proficient in reading and math.
True, Rochester and Syracuse showed numbers approaching reality: 40 percent of their teachers fell in the lower levels.
And we don’t yet know the full picture because New York City wasn’t included — because the United Federation of Teachers intentionally dragged its heals on reaching an agreement on evaluations.
The unions don’t like the state evaluations and would love to get rid of them or water them down into meaninglessness. They have a point, but it’s not the one they think. Many of the state’s best schools aren’t subject to these evaluations: private schools, parochial schools, charters, etc.
But that’s because they have a far superior mechanism: choice. No one assigns a kid to these schools, and the state doesn’t make the call on whether the teaching is effective. The parents do, and the schools are accountable to them.
So we’re more than willing to make a swap. Give New York’s moms and dads choice — and we’ll gladly give up these teacher evaluations.