The state Board of Regents on Monday agreed to amend the state's controversial new teacher evaluation system by allowing what could be a yearlong delay in implementation, and placing less emphasis on student test score results when it comes to judging teachers.

Significant as those changes were, hardly anyone at Monday's meeting — not the teachers union representatives, nor parents groups, nor the Regents themselves — were happy with the result, which Regents Board member Roger Tilles had earlier referred to as "lipstick on a pig."

"It was not the most attractive piece of legislation that was written," Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch said after the morning session. She was referring to the law, introduced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and passed by the Legislature in March, that ordered the new system.

Because Cuomo put the new evaluation process in the state budget, lawmakers said they felt compelled to pass it, or else risk a late budget and in the process endanger school funding. The legislation instructs the Regents to approve and the State Education Department to develop the evaluation system by June 30.

It would mean the state's nearly 700 school districts would have to approve the system and in some cases offer their own "locally based" tests used to rate teachers. With schools starting summer break soon and a Nov. 15 deadline to adopt the program, many said it was unrealistic.

As a result, a divided panel of the Regents agreed to allow school districts to seek a four-month "hardship" delay if they couldn't hit the deadline. 

With that four-month break pushing them into March, such delays would essentially put off implementing the new plans until September 2016 rather than September 2015 as envisioned.

If the state Education Department was unable to examine and approve an alternate local test that a district wanted to use in time for this coming school year, that could count as a hardship. 

Monday's votes came from the Regents P-12 committee. The full board is set to give final approval on Tuesday.

Regents also approved a reduction the reliance on state-issued standardized exams in developing teacher ratings.

While the change lowered the chances that teachers whose students consistently get low scores could be fired, those at Monday's meeting were satisfied.

Part of the issue was the complicated grid or "matrix" in which test results play a role in an educator's final evaluation. Tisch at one point told Regents members to draw a box and rectangle as an aid to help visualize the various options.

"My head is spinning,'' Regent Kathleen Cashin later said.

Under the amendment, less than half of the total evaluation could be dependent on a score.

Despite that change, the powerful New York State United Teachers union said the revised evaluation plan still places too much reliance on testing.

"They are trying to fix a system that is basically broken," said NYSUT Vice President Catalina Fortino.

Several people noted that the tests now being used are designed to measure student achievement, not a teacher's effectiveness.

Monday's amendments were first broached earlier this month, when seven of the 17-member Board of Regents issued a letter calling for the changes.

Regents themselves said they were bracing for criticism, either for the new plan's reliance on tests or the possibility of delays.

"I am very well aware of the rhetoric that is going to ensue over the next 48 hours," said Tisch.

"We'll be attacked," Regent James Tallon later said.

As if that wasn't enough, Deputy Education Commissioner Ken Wagner, who helped the Regents navigate the amendments, told members that the federal Education Department wasn't going to give New York state a requested waiver that would allow scores of "English-language learners" — students with a limited proficiency in English — to be exempt from test score averages.

"The last thing that people want," Wagner said at the start of Monday's session, "is more traditional standardized tests.'' 

rkarlin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5758 • @RickKarlinTU