System in works to 

grade N.Y. teachers; 

Cuomo wants it on 

fast track

 

 

Written by

 

Gary Stern

Lower Hudson.com

 

New York's teachers will soon be graded 

on a 100-point scale — but without red 

check marks or smiley faces.

 

The state is racing to build a new system 

for better evaluating teachers, a complex 

and politically charged goal that has 

confounded the educational world for 

decades.

 

 

But educators, including some helping to create 

the new system, say the state is moving 

recklessly in order to be eligible for federal 

grants. Download: Teacher experience by district 

 

"There is real potential for implosion," said 

Kenneth Mitchell, superintendent of South 

Orangetown schools. "New teaching 

standards would be great. But we need 

more time and money."

 

The system is to go into effect this fall for 

many English and math teachers in grades 

4 through 8 and for all teachers and 

principals the following year. But Gov. 

Andrew Cuomo wants to speed things up 

so that all teachers are included in 2011-

12, a goal educators say is unrealistic.

 

A 50-person task force is hurrying to 

design the system in time for the state 

Board of Regents to approve it in June and 

the state Education Department to write 

regulations.

 

"I'm not sure we really like the path we're 

on, but our job at this point is to make it 

work," said Michael McDermott, principal of 

Scarsdale Middle School and a member of 

the task force. "We want to come up with a 

process that is seen as fair and 

manageable and that makes teachers and 

principals' jobs easier and not more 

difficult."

 

Harry Phillips of Hartsdale, the regional 

representative on the Board of Regents, 

fears that forcing a new system on districts 

in a short period of time could lead to 

unseen costs and worse.

 

"It's gotten so far out of hand, but there is 

nothing we can do at this point," he said. "If 

mistakes are made and the data is flawed, 

it would be terrible to make it public. 

People will say 'I don't want my kid in that  

person's class.' "

 

 

Under the system, teachers will get a 

numerical grade and one of four ratings: 

highly effective; effective; developing; or 

ineffective. For many teachers, evaluations 

will be based 20 percent on state tests, 20 

percent on school-district tests or other 

measures, and 60 percent on classroom 

observations and other reviews.

 

Driving the process is a growing call for 

accountability in education. New York is 

one of about 20 states that committed last 

year to revamping teacher-evaluation 

systems to be eligible for federal Race to 

the Top grants.

 

Different groups also want school districts 

to be able to fire teachers based on 

performance instead of seniority. New York 

City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants the 

state to scrap its "last in, first out" law. But 

Cuomo is touting the new teacher-

evaluation system as the eventual basis for 

employment decisions, from granting 

tenure to termination.

 

"We need a legitimate evaluation system to 

rely upon," Cuomo said in a statement.

 

Because of seniority rules and financial 

pressures, the number of teachers with 

less than three years experience in 

Westchester, Rockland and Putnam 

counties dropped by 42 percent from 

2008 to 2010.

 

Under the new system, any teacher who 

gets two straight "ineffective" grades could 

 

be subject to a hearing on his or her 

future. School districts in New York are 

required to review teachers annually. Many 

observers agree that better evaluations will 

benefit all.

 

"Teaching is truly an art and a science, 

something you master over time," said 

Debra Thomas, executive director of the 

Rockland Teachers Center. "Improving 

teacher evaluations should be looked upon 

as way to improve student performance."

 

The new system will immediately affect 

districts whose current contracts with 

teachers went into effect since last July. 

Districts with older contracts will be phased 

in, but it's not clear how.

 

For now, the state is trying to decide how 

specific to make its dictates to districts and 

much local flexibility should remain for 

designing evaluations.

 

 

"One thing we're trying to impress on the 

powers that be is that this has to be  

manageable, practical and do-able," said 

Jere Hochman, superintendent of Bedford 

schools and a member of the task force. 

"There is a vision here — which one could 

debate — but at some point you have to 

implement it."

 

Fundamental questions remain about how 

the evaluation system will work.

 

For the state testing component, good for 

20 percent of a teacher's score, the plan is 

to use sophisticated tests that measure 

how student achievement changes from 

year to year. These tests are designed to 

compare the progress of similar students 

and to measure the impact of teachers and 

schools.

 

But a study released last August by the 

Economic Policy Institute, a think tank in 

Washington, D.C, found that such tests 

yield different results for the same teachers 

at different points in time.

 

"This runs counter to most people's notions 

that the true quality of a teacher is likely to 

change very little over time," the study said.

 

Another 20 percent will depend on student 

progress according to local measures, 

which could mean district-designed tests.

 

The remaining 60 percent will be based on 

a locally decided assortment of teacher 

evaluations, possibly including classroom 

observations, peer reviews, input from 

parents, and reviews of teacher documents 

and student work. This component will be 

subject to collective bargaining with 

teachers.

 

In the end, all locally designed 

measurements, from tests to observations, 

will have to be shown to comply with state 

standards.

 

There will have to be extensive training for 

anyone involved in evaluating teachers.

 

South Orangetown's Mitchell calculated that 

a high school principal with 120 teachers 

could have to spend three hours a day on 

twice-annual observations, and pre- and 

post-observation meetings. He said his 

district is getting $23,000 in Race to the 

Top funds but could have to spend $1 

million over four years for the new system.

 

"You need years to make these changes," 

Mitchell said.

 

 

It's also not clear how the system will be 

adjusted for the many teachers — in art, 

music, special education, counseling — 

whose students may not take standardized 

tests.

 

"This is quite a challenge for everyone," 

said Jay Worona, general counsel to the 

New York State School Boards Association 

and a task force member. "If the Regents 

pass it in June, school districts could have 

two weeks to figure things out."

 

McDermott, Hochman and Worona agreed 

that Cuomo's desire to have all teachers 

evaluated next year is completely 

unrealistic.

 

"Some might say the process is already too 

accelerated," Hochman said.

 

Kenneth Peterson, a professor at Portland 

State University who has studied teacher 

evaluations for 30 years, said it should 

take 3-5 years to set up a new system, 

starting with a limited number of teachers. 

"A call for instant results, instant change, 

will fall apart," he said.

 

Peterson said serious evaluations should 

include several measuring sticks, such as 

parent surveys, peer reviews and teachers 

taking tests, but not necessarily the same 

group for each teacher. "What makes one 

teacher effective can differ from what 

makes another great, so you can't use one 

set of data for every teacher," he said.

 

Research also shows, he said, that districts 

should use panels of teachers, 

administrators, parents and even students 

to review teachers rather than a principal.

 

"The principal knows a lot but faces a fatal 

conflict of interest," Peterson said.

 

Asked about grading teachers on a 100-

 

point scale, he said: "It won't last past a 

year."