Cuomo Pushes for Teacher Eval Changes via Online Initiative

Teacher evaluations in New York are changing, and a website encourages local implementation of the recent state agreement.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced an online initiative to get parents and students involved in pushing for local implementation of the new statewide evaluation system agreed upon last month.

“Now that we have created a national model for teacher evaluations, we need the parents, students and people of New York to help us make sure it gets implemented in our schools,” Governor Cuomo said. “I hope the countless parents and advocates who have been demanding accountability in our schools will use www.nystudentsfirst.com to get involved in our efforts to put students first and reform our education system.”

The new system splits a teacher’s evaluation between their own performance as measured by a variety of metrics and on classroom observation, which will account for 60% of the teacher’s evaluation. The remaining 40% is accounted for by student achievement, split equally between results in state tests and local tests. This mirrors a national trend towards basing teacher evaluations on measurable student performance.

The agreement significantly tightens the scoring system to ensure student achievement and teacher performance are both properly taken into account for teacher ratings. Teachers or principals that are rated ineffective in the 40 points could not receive a developing score overall.

Ineffective: 0 – 64
Developing: 65 – 74
Effective: 75 – 90
Highly Effective: 91 – 100

Of major importance in the new agreement is that it gives the SED Commissioner authority to reject local evaluation plans that are considered insufficient.

StudentsFirst will include an interactive map tracking the implementation of the new system in the 696 school districts throughout the states. Interested parties can sign up to receive information and alerts about their local district’s implementation progress.

A deadline for local implementation to be agreed has been set at January, 16, 2013 by Governor Cuomo.

Comments

Linda Brees

March 8, 2012 at 4:24 am

What is he pushing for? Aren’t the evaluation changes already mandatory as per race to the top?

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Joe

March 8, 2012 at 4:30 am

Apparently the unions are reluctant to comply. Quelle surprize.

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Ray

March 8, 2012 at 1:00 pm

If teacher evaluation is based on student performance, will that eventually lead to having our more effective teachers working to get into a higher performing school? Thus, furthering the achievement gap in terms of SES…. Does not sound like it was all thought out. Sounds like there are good intentions, but without the details worked out per school district, SES, Race, Prior performance, etc… sounds just like another NCLB…. oh, but with a different name.

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Green Goat

March 9, 2012 at 7:44 am

The details are never worked out. Politicians pass this stuff
and vanish, leaving someone else to cleanup the mess later.

Bold, trend setting, model for the rest of the nation, groundbreaking, blah, blah ….politician talk
(BS in other words)

Reply
- Kevin
  
  March 10, 2012 at 3:37 am
  
  Ahh thanks. That explains it.
  
  Reply
Mike

March 13, 2012 at 11:50 am

Just one question? When none of this changes anything, what is next? The fundamental flaw is that people will always be in charge, where people are in charge, errors occur. Nothing is perfect. The U.S. because it is a metling pot has more obstacles to overcome than any other nation period. Because we educate non citizens, we have more obstacles. Getting better is an option but it is multi faceted. It takes 1. schools 2. parents 3. students and 4 communities. Pass accountability laws for each and every one of the above and watch progress be made. Fix one and leave three flat tires all you will have is a bumpy road.

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Green Goat

March 15, 2012 at 1:56 pm

Teachers will now spend all their time documenting everything. All the times a parent did not show up to open house, all the times the student did not show up to school or attempt to makeup the missed work, all the times the student did not come prepared to class, how the school system did not provide supplies or technology support, how often (if at all) principals/supervisors returned calls and emails, if the proper room and equipment was provided.
Nothing is going to improve until the student takes ownership in their education.

Reply
Shameful and Degrading Evaluations of Teachers by Politicians

March 19, 2012 at 10:37 am

[...] Governor Cuomo, after getting the state to agree to VAM based teacher evaluation system, now is pushing an online initiative that involve parents and advocates “to make sure it (teacher evaluation) gets implemented in [...]

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