Teacher Evaluations To Be Linked To Student Test Scores

In another effort to help New York's chances at getting Race to the Top funding, the state education department and teachers' unions have proposed overturning legislature that bans teacher evaluations from being linked to test scores. With the new bill, students' standardized test scores would account for 20% of a teacher's grade, and local tests administered by each school would account for another 20%. New York State Education Commissioner David M. Steiner said in a press release, "The proposed evaluation system will help ensure that we have an effective teacher in every classroom and an effective leader in every school."

The changes, which unions have traditionally deeply opposed, will grade teachers as highly effective, effective, developing or ineffective, rather than just satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Educators are hoping this deal would make it easier for schools to fire bad teachers. Teachers rated ineffective after two years could be fired through an expedited, 60 day hearing instead of the current average of 274 days. But Steiner told the Times, "This is not a gotcha system. This is about creating professional development that can really improve education."

Unions had been criticized over their support of the previous bill and their opposition to reform. However, UFT president Michael Mulgrew said, "We worked with the State Education Department to create a more objective system that would apply across the state, with strict limits on the role of standardized tests." The previous law expires on June 1st, the same day the state must apply for the second round of Race to the Top funding.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jaya Saxena in News on May 12, 2010 1:18 PM

Comments [rss]

Petey

I don't agree with this because

a) just because a student doesn't do good, doesn't mean its the teachers fault

b) just because a student gets good grades, doesn't mean he's actually learning anything (ie dumbing down the work, or passing with mediocre grades)

GalBklyn

This type of performance review in the private sector would never fly for those professions in which success is measured in a wide variety of ways. Easy way out for Department of Ed who lack the creativity and substance to actually come up a multi-dimensional method of evaluation. Kudos to Steiner for his efforts in destroying the public school system in the State of New York. What consultant told you that this was the way to go??

handsomedevil

This type of performance review in the private sector would never fly for those professions in which success is measured in a wide variety of ways.

Example? I suspect that being evaluated by objective, quantifiable measures is fairly common in many fields (the most common unit of measurement being $$).

Easy way out for Department of Ed who lack the creativity and substance to actually come up a multi-dimensional method of evaluation.

How is it not "multi-dimensional"? The test data is only one factor in evaluation, and not even the deciding one. Hope you don't teach reading comprehension.

Bix Beiderbecke

Agreed. Not to mention this will lead to no teachers wanting to teach in under privileged/poor-performing schools. You can teach students, but you can't take the test for them. Why your performance as a teacher is dependent upon a third party who may or may not reflect the job you do as a teacher makes no sense. This may lead to improvements in some teachers, but it's going to leave stranded the kids who need help the most. No teacher will want to instruct where the students just don't care, or need extra help.

Ishtar

I really hate to type this, but I side with teachers on this one. Primarily because there are factors outside of the classroom impacting a child's ability to learn, which majority of teachers can do very little about. Until those issues are addressed I think it would be unfair to link their pay to test scores.

I also don't think tests are necessarily the best way to measure learning or at least not the type of tests they are administering.

handsomedevil

BUT, what other objective factors do you have to evaluate success?

As someone who teaches at the college level, I *hate* teaching alongside someone who is not pulling their weight. A new semester starts, their kids stream into my class, and it's like WTF, they can't do X, Y, or Z. I have to reteach it, and bore "my" kids who already learned it. If we had the same final and compared results, it would be obvious that the other person was failing (or, in the very least, that we don't agree on how the curriculum works, which would also be a problem.)

Sure, if the standardized tests are totally moronic it is counterproductive. But, that hasn't been demonstrated to be the case - it just seems to be a popular assumption.

And no I don't buy the idea that the students themselves are such a wildcard. Year after year you'll get the same general population in a school. If one teacher gets consistently poorer results than his or her peers, you know it ain't the students.

JenChungsBaby

As if there wasn't already enough pressure to "teach to the test."

chuzzlewit

if you have kids, you notice this. they're chugging along- learning stuff, bringing home things they made, science experiments, "books" they wrote, stuff like that. then when the test dates are a couple of months(!) away a lot of that dries up. they begin to practice taking tests. over. and over. and over. you can really sense the change in how they feel about school. its not too hard to work to make up for this at home, but it still is a little sad. and i'm sure not everyone's parents work to balance it out... i don't completely disagree with testing, but its impact is clear.

Ishtar

Oops. I meant evaluations, not pay. Their pay would ultimately be impacted should they lose their jobs. I'm just concerned about scapegoating, especially with teachers working in some of the worst neighborhoods and schools.