Urge the state not to rush a new teacher evaluation system until it's ready and has parent input!

Please do NOT rush the new NY teacher evaluation system into effect, and be sure to include input f

To Gov. Cuomo, Commissioner Steiner, the Legislature, and the Regents:

As public school parents and concerned citizens, we would like to thank Gov. Cuomo for opposing the elimination of seniority protections for teachers in New York City.

Study after study shows that teaching experience matters greatly in terms of student outcomes, and installing an alternative system of layoffs based largely on arbitrary ratings would undermine the professionalism of the teaching force and the quality of instruction in NYC schools.

However, we fear that the legislation that the Governor has proposed to rush into effect a new teacher evaluation system for next year would do more harm than good. Our concerns are these:

1. Numerous experts, including from the National Academy of Sciences and the Economic Policy Institute, have warned of the potentially damaging consequences of implementing test-based teacher evaluation systems. The danger was also revealed in a recent NY Times column in which an excellent NYC teacher is likely to be denied tenure and leave teaching altogether – a major loss to her school and its students – because of the unreliability of a test-based system. Any new teacher evaluation system must encompass multiple sources of evidence, including peer and principal input, parent and student surveys, and alternative assessments that include student work.

2. The Regents Task Force on Teacher and Principal Evaluation is almost exclusively composed of teachers and administrators, and does not appear to have a single public school parent on it. Nor does it include any experts on statistics and testing.

3. The quick turn-around time needed to implement the proposed teacher evaluation system precludes the kind of well-considered design necessary to ensure teacher quality.

Thus, we urge you to delay the implementation of any new teacher evaluation system until we can be sure that it thoughtfully devised and carefully piloted, with numerous safeguards built in to ensure that excellent teachers are not mistakenly categorized and denied tenure or other job protections.

We further insist that a significant number of parents be appointed to the task force, along with independent experts on testing and statistics who are not under contract to either SED or DOE.

Any teacher evaluation system worthy of the public’s confidence must have meaningful input from parents and independent experts, as it is our children whose education that is most at stake.

Yours,

[Your name]