Governor Cuomo Sends Letter to the Chancellor of the Board of Regents Regarding Performance Evaluations for Teachers



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Andrew M. Cuomo - Governor

Governor Cuomo Sends Letter to the Chancellor of the Board of Regents Regarding Performance Evaluations for Teachers

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Albany, NY (May 13, 2011)

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today sent the following letter to the Chancellor of the Board of Regents Merryl Tisch regarding changes needed to improve and accelerate performance evaluations for teachers.

 

The Governor’s full letter is as follows:

 

Dear Chancellor Tisch:

 

Performance is the key to education. It’s not about how much we spend, but the results that matter. As data show our education spending hasn’t resulted in performance. New York schools spend 71 percent more than the national average, yet rank only 40th in graduation rates and 34th in the nation in the percentage of adults who have a high school diploma or the equivalent.

 

We must focus on measures and accountability. That is why the State Education Department’s (“SED”) current process to develop a teacher and principal evaluation system is critically important. We not only need a strong evaluation system that will improve the performance of our children, but also to support our educators so they can continually develop and improve. Our goal should be to have the best system of evaluation in the nation, yet our proposed system falls short of other states, such as Colorado and Tennessee.

 

What SED establishes today will have a lasting effect for decades to come so it is imperative it’s done correctly. The current Draft Regulations for Teacher and Principal Evaluation (“Draft Regulations”) that were recently issued, however, need revision if we are to implement a system that will be the building blocks to greater performance in our education system.

 

Although there are a number of details in need of improvement, we recommend SED make the following comprehensive changes:

 

• Increase the percentage of statewide objective data, like measuring student growth on statewide test scores, used to evaluate teacher performance;

• Impose rigorous classroom observation and other subjective measures standards on school districts when evaluating teacher performance;

• Require a positive teacher evaluation rating be given only when the teacher receives a combined positive rating on both subjective and objective measures, such as student growth on statewide tests; and,

• Accelerate the implementation of the evaluation system.

 

These are discussed in more detail below and, if implemented, will greatly strengthen the evaluation process.


• First, remove the explicit language prohibiting the same measure of student growth on state assessments from being used for locally-selected assessment measures and state measures simultaneously

 

The Draft Regulations explicitly bar a school district from using the same measure of student growth on the same assessment for both the state assessment subcomponent and the locally-selected measures subcomponent. We believe such a prohibition is unnecessarily restrictive because it precludes a school district from using the objective state-developed growth measure for the locally-selected measures.

 

The Draft Regulations should be amended to permit the same student growth measure be used for the state assessment and locally-selected measures. By removing this prohibition in the Draft Regulations, up to 40 percent of the total score could be based on objective student growth measures on state tests—a percentage that is closer to many other states.

 

This change would ensure that greater balance is struck between using objective teacher evaluation measures, such as statewide testing, and subjective teacher evaluation measures, such as classroom observation. Given that the subjective measures have far greater weight under the evaluation process system, it is imperative that the Draft Regulations adopted do not explicitly reduce the types of objective assessments, such as growth on state tests, available to be used.


• Second, impose additional standards on school districts to improve the 60 percent of locally-developed rubric requirements, such as the observation process, to make evaluations more rigorous

 

The Draft Regulations must be strengthened and better defined to make the 60 percent subjective criteria to evaluate teachers more valuable. Already, New York is an outlier as compared to other states in that it requires more weight be given to subjective measures when rating teachers. Therefore, it is critical that the Draft Regulations include greater precision and impose clear standards.

 

For example, under the Draft Regulations, half of the 60 percent of the locally-developed rubric must be based on classroom observation. Studies have shown that a rigorous evaluation program based on classroom observation is a significant component in promoting student achievement growth. As such, the classroom observation requirement should be increased from half to at least 40 percent of the 60 percent total of the locally-developed rubric.

 

Moreover, the Draft Regulations should establish baseline standards to make classroom observation a more meaningful measure. At a minimum it is vital that the Draft Regulations require multiple annual observations and include criteria for using third party observers.


• Third, require a positive teacher evaluation rating be given only when the teacher receives a combined positive rating on both subjective and objective measures, such as student growth on statewide tests

 

As was discussed above, under the Draft Regulations, objective measurements (e.g. state assessments) have lower weight than subjective measurements to evaluate teachers. In addition, there is no guarantee that objective measures have much meaning in the currently proposed scoring bands. In essence, a teacher could receive a positive rating, such as “developing”, based only on subjective teacher evaluation measures.

 

Other states, such as Delaware and Rhode Island, require “effective” ratings in both the subjective and objective testing measures in order for a teacher or principal to receive an overall “effective” rating. No such requirement exists under the Draft Regulations and therefore diminishes the weight given to objective measurements in the evaluation process. Therefore, at a minimum, the scoring bands should be adjusted to give greater weight to the objective measures by not allowing a positive rating based on subjective measures alone. As an alternative, it is recommended that a teacher or principal be rated “effective” in both objective and subjective categories in order to receive an overall “effective” or “highly effective” rating.


• Fourth, accelerate the timetable of implementing the evaluation system

 

I appreciate your assistance in accelerating the process so the evaluation system could be implemented for all teachers prior to the full implementation deadline of the 2012-13 school year. However, we must make sure that school districts begin the process in an expeditious manner. Endless implementation delays will hamper our ability to ensure our children are getting the best education, because a system not implemented is of no use.

 

Since SED has articulated the criteria for implementing the entire teacher and principal evaluation system, schools districts should fully implement the teacher and principal evaluation system for the 2011-12 school year and therefore the Draft Regulations should authorize school districts to do so.

 

Finally, my Administration will aggressively seek to incentivize schools districts to implement the evaluation system expeditiously. Therefore, only those districts that actually perform, and implement the teacher and principal evaluation system, would be eligible for the Executive’s School Performance Incentive Program—a $500 million program—that I included in the Executive Budget. School districts would potentially lose millions of dollars on state awards for failure to implement the system quickly.

 

We must not squander the opportunity to set the right course and make New York a leader in evaluating performance in our education system. If done correctly we will revive our education system to ensure students perform better and succeed in their future careers. The recommendations above will help set the course. Now is our chance to make New York a leader in education performance.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Andrew M. Cuomo

Governor

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Mr. Cuomo has emerged as the spokesperson for those stealthy powers behind the scene that are bent on destroying our educational system.  I am convinced that there is not a true educator amongst them, just politicians, business people and lawyers.  The Regent from my own area is an attorney.  Oh joy!  They hide behind language of accountability and doing what is right for children but their solutions are not based on anything remotely tied to pedagogical research. Ironic that Cuomo was put into power by the very folks in a system that he is seeking to destroy.

 

Mr. Cuomo, it takes a village, haven't you heard?  The school is just one part of the village that is working towards educating our children in a socially appropriate manner.  The rest of the village does a lot more to affect educational outcomes than you seem to realize.  Focus more attention on those areas, hold them accountable too and your desired results will appear.

With whatever this cohort of power brokers really has in mind, it is just so disheartening to see Boards of Education, Superintendents and unions just cower at their mandates.  Is there anybody out there that is willing to rise against this tide of destructive, punitive policy?

 

jf

Those who can teach, those who can not pass laws about teaching.
Give me a break!!  I teach students with learning and emotional disabilities.  For many of these students maintaining a score or increasing their scores by a very few percentage points is actually a HUGE accomplishment.  The students who are assigned to me are always the most fragile, math phobic students in the school and they are assigned to me for a reason.  I met one child's outside therapist recently and she said to me, "I wish you were her teacher a lot earlier."  This child has very low math skills, as a matter of fact it took her all 4 years of high school to pass the math RCT, but she passed it and I am honored to be part of that.  If I was rated based on her scores I would not receive a positive rating.  Is that fair?  I get to work at 8:20 a.m. and often leave at 6 or later.  I prepare smartboard lessons, I help other teachers increase their smartboard use and implement their curriculum also.  So, based on Cuomo's recommendation I don't receive a positive rating?  That's ridiculous.  People exert control over the teaching profession because they feel like they can.  We are not children who need to be controlled and we are not cattle who need to be corralled.  We are professionals who love children and try very hard.  We are not miracle workers.  What do you think these new suggestions will do to teacher morale?  Doesn't that have an even larger impact on learning than other measures?  If you have a teacher who is stressed, under appreciated by the government and chastised even though they work so hard, how can that teacher remain positive at work.  Stress from the administration trickles down to the teachers and that trickles down to the students who CERTAINLY don't deserve it.  Does anyone evaluate and observe state and city workers and the government like this?
There are so many components keyed to learner success that are missing from Cuomo's missive- where is the impact of costly mandates? The demographics of districts? Family and community.....blah blah! Just another way to shift accountability onto the only people who are actually attempting to help children learn! Arghhhhhhhhhh...

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