For Immediate Release

March 12, 2012

Contact:  Dr. Carol Burris, South Side High School (516-255-8947)

 Harry Leonardatos, Principal, Clarkstown H.S. North (845-639-6504) 

 Carol Conklin-Spillane, Principal, Sleepy Hollow High School (914-332-6200)

NEW YORK PRINCIPALS TO RELEASE AD CRITICIZING 

NEW TEACHER EVALUATION SYSTEM 

Move Signals Coordinated Statewide Effort to Raise Awareness 

About Controversial New Evaluation System

[Rockville Centre, New York]— They came from as far north as Red Hook, New York and as far east as Southold to stand together in the hope that the legislature would hear their concerns. Nearly 100 principals from the greater metropolitan area (New York City, Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, Rockland, and Dutchess counties) met in Rockville Centre, New York late in the afternoon on Monday to kick off a public service education campaign to alert the public and legislators to the weaknesses and costs of   the controversial new teacher and principal evaluation system proposed by Governor Andrew Cuomo and State Education Commissioner, John King.   The campaign began with a group photograph, which demonstrates the unity of principals on this issue. The photograph will be part of an advertisement, to be placed in the Legislative Gazette and in other publications. The ad will alert legislators and the public to the problems with the new evaluation system.  The message of the campaign is that the Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) is flawed, expensive and will not serve the best interests of our public school students.  

As a first step, the principals are calling upon State legislators to make the following modifications to APPR regulations in the budget:  

• Apply the confidentiality provisions of Civil Rights Law §50-a to teachers and principals.
• Adjust the scoring ranges so that the 40% attributed to test scores cannot be the deciding factor in an educator’s evaluation.   
• Pilot APPR for effectiveness before full implementation. 

As New York State gears to adopt the new APPR for teachers, the principals continue to share the following general concerns, which have not been addressed by policymakers:  

• A government created and imposed system of evaluation cannot effectively rate teacher performance.  The principals also reject the premise that standardized exams should play a central role in determining individual teacher effectiveness. Research has shown that students’ scores cannot be reliably used for that purpose.  
• “Teaching to the test”  limits the development of the multiple gifts and talents of students and is therefore potentially harmful to student learning.
• Limited tax dollars are being redirected from schools to testing companies, consultants, trainers, and lawyers to develop an unproven teacher evaluation system that has no track record of improving student achievement.

Today’s principal meeting is the culmination of a four-month effort to gain the attention of Albany policymakers and the State Education Department.  A letter outlining the principals’ objection can be found at www.newyorkprincipals.org.  Over 1,400 principals across the state (more than 31 percent of all principals in the State) and 6,140 supporters (including Superintendents, Board Members, Teachers, Parents, and former Commissioner of Education, Dr. Thomas Sobol) have already signed this letter.  The principals’ grass roots movement has received national media attention, including an article in The New York Times.  

Although these principals agree that evaluations should be improved, they are dismayed by the rapid pace, high costs, unfinished nature and lack of research associated with the APPR system.  In addition, while they recognize that school-wide achievement results are critical, they are concerned by the growing number of standardized tests that are being imposed on our students in part to measure their teacher’s performance.  Carol Burris, principal of South Side High School, stated: “A teacher evaluation system that has not been piloted and relies heavily on student test scores is a poor indicator of teacher quality.  Students and communities will lose, while consultants and other vendors will profit from the excessive testing of students.”  

ABOUT NEW YORK STATE PRINCIPALS:

The principals’ decision to sign the open letter is part of a grassroots campaign that began in Long Island.  For the first time in New York State history, principals from New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland, Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties have met multiple times concerning an increasing culture of teaching to the test in schools at the expense of student learning.  The principals are proud of their record and accomplishments and note that New York State is second in the nation among students taking the Advanced Placement exam and second in the nation according to a comprehensive analysis of policy and performance conducted by the research group Quality Counts.