By LISA FLEISHER
WSJ
Plans for a new teacher rating system for New York City schools that would include measures of student performance—a hallmark of national education reform efforts—were dealt a setback on Friday after negotiations broke down between the city and the teachers union.
The failure to reach an agreement before a year-end deadline had an immediate, if minimal, effect: The state suspended a program to funnel nearly $60 million in federal funds to the city to improve a small number of troubled schools. The money represents less than 0.3% of the Department of Education's annual budget.
More broadly, however, the breakdown suggests a stalemate over implementing new teacher evaluations for the entire city school system, a state requirement that's also one of the most ambitious items on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's schools agenda. In addition, including student performance in teacher evaluations is a key component of President Barack Obama's education policies.
"I don't know what comes next at this point," said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers.
The parties were negotiating an evaluation method that would apply to teachers at 44 schools selected to receive federal money to improve troubled schools. But the method was seen as the model for what would be rolled out for the rest of the city's 1,750 schools.
Under state law, a new evaluation system that judges educators, in part, on student progress on standardized tests must be in place in the 2011-12 school year. Barring that, a method must be in place in order for the city and the teachers union to reach a new contract. The current contract expired two years ago.
"This disagreement—regarding both policy and principles—leads me to conclude that we will not be able to come to an agreement on a fair and progressive teacher evaluation system," schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said in a letter to the state.
The state Education Department had warned the city and other districts that if they couldn't reach agreements with their unions the money for the troubled schools would be withheld. The city could also lose another $77 million this summer if no agreement is reached.
State Commissioner John King called the breakdown "beyond disappointing" and said he'd seen "no evidence of real progress" on an agreement over several months. "The adults in charge of the city's schools have let the students down," he said in a statement on Friday. "The failure to reach agreements on evaluations leaves thousands of students mired in the same educational morass."
Spurred on by the Obama administration, New York is one of many states across the country working to restructure teacher evaluation methods to incorporate student test scores.
City and union officials agreed, in principle, on the framework for the new rating system, based on a state law that requires all districts to start using the new evaluations in the 2011-12 school year. More than 1,000 principals in the state—but very few from New York City—have signed a petition in opposition to the new evaluations.
Under the new system in New York City, an analysis of student scores on state tests would count for 20% of teachers' ratings, while another 20% would come from new tests the city is developing. The rest would be based on a rubric that includes things such as lesson plan preparations and use of tests and data in instruction. Also included would be classroom observations by principals, but none by peer teachers, which the union supports.
The sticking point for a deal was whether teachers should be able to appeal a low rating to an outside arbitrator. Union officials said an appeal process would prevent principals from abusing their authority, but the city dismissed it as an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
"They were never really serious about getting this done," Mr. Mulgrew said of the Department of Education. Privately, department officials had similar complaints about the union.
Mr. Walcott accused the union of showing it "is more interested in protecting the worst performing teachers than in implementing a meaningful teacher evaluation system that will benefit our students."
"The union is so determined to create procedural hurdles that they are willing to jeopardize tens of millions of dollars for our schools," he said in a statement.
After the negotiations stalled with the teachers union, the city halted talks with the principals union over an evaluation system for the school leaders.
Teachers union officials said they offered to participate in binding arbitration, but Mr. Walcott rejected that option, saying it was inconsistent with state law and "too important" to be left to an arbitrator.
