SYRACUSE -- School administrators, teachers unions, and parents groups have just ten days left to comment about a proposed new teacher and principal evaluation system.
The new regulations were released in draft form on April 14th by the State Education Department. The deadline for the public comment period ends on April 29th.
The regulations would tie a teacher and principal's evaluation to student performance. Based on the new system, 20 percent of a teacher's evaluation would be tied to student growth on state tests, 60 percent on classroom observations and 20 percent on "locally selected measures" which would be drawn by local school districts and could include a district's poverty rate or number of immigrants with English as a second language.
For principals, at least 30 points would be based on an assessment of leadership and management skills.
Syracuse School Superintendent Dan Lowengard told CNY Central's Jim Kenyon, "To me what this is all about is how are we going to better our profession by changing the culture and showing our ability to remove the lowest performing people."
As President of the Syracuse Teachers Association Kevin Ahern said, "I'm not sure it's been as well thought out as it might be and we're hoping the state will continue to work with the unions to try to improve it and make it a fair system.
The state is moving ahead with the evaluations in hopes of putting them into effect by the beginning of the next school year. But Lowengard says it may take three years before such an evaluation system would replace the current way teachers are laid off through seniority.
We want to know what you think. Should teacher and administrator evaluations be tied to student performance? What's the best way to evaluate the job performance of our educators? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.
