New York State and Teachers Union Reach Evaluation Deal

A last minute deal between the State of New York and the state teachers’ union over helps solidify Governor Cuomo’s teacher evaluation plan.

New York State education officials and the state teachers’ union have reached an agreement on a new evaluation system on the last day before Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo could submit his amendments to the state budget. The system will include a detailed ranking system for teachers, as well as plans to work with lower-rated teachers to foster improvement.

While there were some signs on Wednesday that the two parties were getting close to an agreement, the deal was struck in the final few hours before the deadline set by Gov. Cuomo, who had threatened to impose his own way to measure the quality of teachers’ work, writes Mary Ann Giordano at the New York Times.

The governor said that they needed to reach a deal by midnight on Thursday before he would have to submit his own system and penalize any districts that do not have systems in place by withholding extra state aid, writes Fernanda Santos and Winnie Hu at the New York Times.

And while Tom Precious at The Buffalo News blogged that a deal was likely not coming, the last minute agreement puts New York state one step closer to safeguarding $700 million in federal education aid.

The deal marks an end to a near two-year stalemate between New York City’s teachers and its Education Department over how teachers classified as ineffective could appeal that rating. And now, under the agreement, school districts will now be able to base up to 40 percent of a teacher’s annual review on student performance on state standardized tests.

Governor Cuomo said:

“It’s a victory for all New Yorkers.

“Government works, and that makes this state a better state.”

The deal was reached finally at 5:30 a.m. on the day of the deadline. Negotiations ended in Albany and New York City with Gov. Cuomo fixing final details through e-mails and phone calls with his negotiators.

Mayor Bloomberg said that the deal resolved “the lion’s share of issues” between the city and its teachers’ union.

“Historic is probably not too strong a word to use.”

Under the new system, teachers are ranked ineffective, developing, effective or highly effective, and those ranked as “ineffective” will be given a development plan to address weaknesses.

Gov. Cuomo gave school districts across the state until January to sign off on their version of the evaluation system or else lose their 4 percent increase in education aid. And now, as a deal looks to be finally struck, the $58 million in federal funding that schools should receive will be restored.

However, Michael Mulgrew, President of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) said that if the plan goes ahead it will be “very difficult” to put an evaluation system in place in the city.

But as nearly 100 districts had already reached agreements with their local unions and another 250 had agreed on key parts, state officials can be confident that Governor Cuomo’s plans will soon be implemented statewide.

Comments

Ann

February 22, 2012 at 8:04 am

This is really sad. Teachers are NOT the only accountable party in a child’s education, and research proves it. The parent(s) has/ have a huge role to play, the child has a role, the administrators have a role and GREATER SOCIETY has a role too! Parents should insure their child is fed, had a good night’s sleep, does their homework, checks that homework with them, teaches them manners and to be respectful, ground their child morally and spiritually, take them on trips outside their community, ( expose them to the world) and take away the TV, video games, music and cell phones! Now, before you flip your lid, some parents are engaged in their child’s education and the rest of you, you know who you are. Children today have too much freedom and not enough responsibility, in my humble opinion. I hope you have paid attention to the fact that our greater society has declined and continues to do so. We debase ourselves with profane speech (cursing in public appears to be the norm) ,vile music, and music videos, violent video games, mindless television shows, sex, sex, sex , drugs , alcohol, and wonder why our children aren’t learning as they should. We should all start contacting television networks, record companies, Hollywood producers and DEMAND better.! How about music, TV that will be edifying instead of degrading? Cuomo & Bloomburg have it wrong! It is just a game they are playing and the bottom line is money, it always ends up being the bottom line. Our tax dollars fund public education. We are not getting a good return on that investment, so blame who you can, the teachers! Can you imagine a polititian blaming parents for the poor jobs they are doing? That will never happen, so keep the rhetoric going about poor teachers, yes it ‘s ALL my fault that Johnny can’t read on grade level; never mind that he comes to school hungry so he can’t concentrate, he never does his homework, studies for any tests, does not pay attention during instruction and tries to distract other children, is rude and disrespectful to adults, and when you meet the parent, you see why, the apple never falls far from the tree. Not that I totally blame parents, because most are overloaded, stressed out, trying to make life work the best they can just like teachers. You can terminate poor teachers, but it is a process, due process! Don’t believe the hype! Be smarter than politicians think you are!

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Tough Love in Washington State « School House Wonk

February 22, 2012 at 1:10 pm

[...] on many of the major education issues of our time. In places like New Haven, Connecticut and New York state, teachers’ unions are signing onto evaluation systems that take student performance into [...]

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