Click to see a copy of the guide to teacher evaluation for NYC DOE. On Tuesday, January 21 Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his desire to shake up a lot of education policy in New York State. Instead of relying on previous research and the thoughts of teachers dedicated to the profession, he is decided to propose and potentially impose changes in the near future. The main one that really strikes me as opposite-thinking is his plan to increase the portion of a teacher's evaluation based on state test scores from 20% to 50%.
The current balance of teacher evaluation is represented by the chart to the right. Local and State measures (i.e. a lot of testing) is already 40% of a teacher's evaluation and 60% comes from observation by principals and assistant principals (or their designee).
The huge change goes in contrast with what other major urban districts have done. While Washington, DC's IMPACT system went into play at 50% of evaluations based on test scores, now they have reduced it to 35%, and now are taking a hiatus from using it. It is very surprising that Governor Cuomo would want to do the opposite.
Value-added modeling is at the height of its popularity right now (or maybe a bit passed) yet people are starting to catch up. Organizations are publicly supporting groups of students who are opting out of these exams. The Brooklyn New School, below where I work, has had a refusal rate of over 70%.
Lawmakers are sponsoring legislation to remove federally mandated testing quite soon - we will see how effective this push will be. In the meantime, students are still getting anxiety over these tests and teachers are as well - more emphasis on them for us will not mean better outcomes for our students.
The current balance of teacher evaluation is represented by the chart to the right. Local and State measures (i.e. a lot of testing) is already 40% of a teacher's evaluation and 60% comes from observation by principals and assistant principals (or their designee).
The huge change goes in contrast with what other major urban districts have done. While Washington, DC's IMPACT system went into play at 50% of evaluations based on test scores, now they have reduced it to 35%, and now are taking a hiatus from using it. It is very surprising that Governor Cuomo would want to do the opposite.
Value-added modeling is at the height of its popularity right now (or maybe a bit passed) yet people are starting to catch up. Organizations are publicly supporting groups of students who are opting out of these exams. The Brooklyn New School, below where I work, has had a refusal rate of over 70%.
Lawmakers are sponsoring legislation to remove federally mandated testing quite soon - we will see how effective this push will be. In the meantime, students are still getting anxiety over these tests and teachers are as well - more emphasis on them for us will not mean better outcomes for our students.
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