Gov. Andrew Cuomo has joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others who say the scores on standardized tests should be a major factor in evaluating teacher performance in the city’s public school system. The scores would account for as much as 40 percent in determining which teachers will be retained and laid off. If the proposed system of evaluation goes into effect, it will replace the existing, seniority-based system.
In essence, the reformers have concluded that the disappointing performance of city public schools is a result of retaining unqualified teachers. Overcrowded classrooms, out-of-date textbooks and crumbling facilities are not a problem. They want to do away with the policy of “last in, first out” when layoffs have to be made.
Although, like everyone else, we want the schools to be staffed by the best teachers, we are troubled by the use of scores on Regents exams. Not all students and not all classes are the same. Students living in the poorest neighborhoods and coming from broken and impoverished homes face greater challenges when it comes to standardized tests. It hardly seems fair to evaluate a teacher based largely on performance.
In a blog on the Internet, two writers claiming to be teachers weighed in on the governor’s proposal: “I am a history teacher in a high needs area in NYC. This idea of evaluating my teaching based on how well my students perform on the Regents is ludicrous and not to mention unfair. No other profession evaluates an employee based on the performance of another person because that would not make sense.”
Another wrote: “My students do not study, do not take opportunities to attend study sessions, and tutoring sessions that I have offered all year long to help them be successful on the Regent exams and in school. They tell me they don’t care about the Regents.”
The Regents exams are not a fair measure of teacher performance. This plan could wind up hurting students. We support efforts to weed out teachers who long ago lost the desire to teach and are counting the days until retirement, but the standard for evaluation has to be fair. The plan put forth by the governor and the mayor is not.
