NY Teacher Evaluations

So a few months ago I posted about the state of New York’s teacher evaluations. I talked about why it was such a bad idea for 60% of the measurement to come from a teacher’s personal performance (graded through observations and interaction with their principal) and for 40% to come from student performances on standardized tests. 

This week, the NY Senate has continued voting on the teacher evaluation policy. Are they taking away the strict emphasis on standardized testing? Are they creating new forms of measurements to adjust for funding inequalities? Oh no, of course not! Instead, they’re fighting to make all evaluations actively available to the public. 

The first form of the bill would have allowed any teacher’s score to be openly shared with anyone who wanted it - Parents could post the scores online, share them with friends, or even submit them to the media. Thankfully, the bill that actually passed today has cut down on a little bit of that. But parents can still request teacher scores and there are very few prohibitive policies that would prevent them from quietly passing the information around.

I am not alone in calling: Bullshit

First - The entire system currently in place for evaluating teachers is a mess and is not indicative of an educator’s abilities. Depending on the class, some teachers will automatically score higher or lower. (Poverty, behavioral problems, access to technology, and mental illness are some variables) Some teachers may not actually want to score high because that implies skills that their particular students should not develop yet (Example - My mother teaches gym to kindergartners. In order for her to earn the highest rating, her kids would have to take initiative and put away their gym equipment without being asked. This is a bad thing since 1. the equipment usually has to stay out for all the other classes, 2. the equipment is too large for them to safely handle and 3. she would have to issue a request that they then put everything back, which would automatically violate her high rating. Catch-22) The system is broken and is not an accurate way to weed out the people who should not be teaching.

And Second - Parents and the general public will not likely understand the rating scale. Teachers will be given a score of 1-4. 4 will probably never, ever, ever be earned. While 1 does not mean that a teacher is necessarily incompetent, just that they have not hit a handful of arbitrary standards. But if a parent sees that their child’s teacher earned a 2? All hell will break loose! 

Parents want the best for this child, and that is both a blessing and a curse. Making evaluations public will simply lead parents to become misinformed about their child’s education, likely leading them to make impossible and highly disruptive requests on the administration. Not every kid can be taught be a 4 teacher, nor would every kid thrive in that environment. Trying to switch around schedules, force 4 teachers to take on larger/more classes, or even dealing with demands that a lower scored teacher be fired will create havoc for a school. Not to mention that the time and effort put forth to deal with the system is a money-sink.

The NY Teacher’s Union is fighting this bill. Hard. And there have been a significant amount of improvements over the bill that was first proposed. But passing this system will inevitably create so many headaches and unnecessary financial wastes for school districts that are already strapped for employees, time and funds.

The public, even parents, do not have the automatic right to see a teacher’s evaluation score. Such information is intended for the purposes of employment. A parent who wishes to decide whether or not their child should be taught by a particular teacher should instead schedule conferences (in person or over the phone), talk directly with the principal, and take a hands-on approach to looking over their child’s school work. But a numerical score is not enough information to make any such personal judgments. This system will inevitably encourage parental outrage and likely force many capable teachers out of work.