Regents tweak regs affecting APPR negotiations

On Board Online • May 23, 2016

By Cathy Woodruff
Senior Writer

With no guarantees that state lawmakers will act to avert a state aid penalty for school districts that fail to get new teacher and principal evaluation systems in place by Sept.1, the Board of Regents has again tweaked regulations for implementing evaluations in an effort to help districts more easily reach agreement.

"We're trying to get people through something that is difficult," Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia told the Regents as she and staff members outlined the rule changes.

Some 568 school districts still are operating under hardship waivers allowing them to continue using plans that comply with an earlier version of the annual professional performance review law (3012-c). Those waivers are poised to expire, however, and the districts face the potential loss of billions in state aid if they don't negotiate and receive approval for new plans that comply with a version of the law enacted last year (3012-d) by Sept. 1.

About 122 districts have negotiated new APPR plans that have been approved.

NYSSBA estimates that, statewide, the districts that have been unable to reach new APPR agreements with their local unions, would forfeit as much as $2.3 billion in state aid under the penalty provisions of the law if they do not have new approved plans by the Sept. 1 deadline.

The tweaks are intended to provide "the greatest flexibility so people can have an easier time getting to agreement on 3012-d by September and move forward with what the law requires," said Alexander Trikalinos, executive director of SED's Office of Teacher/Principal Quality and Professional Development.

NYSSBA staff members are analyzing the regulatory changes. "Usually, changes like this are helpful in some ways and headaches in others," said NYSSBA Executive Director Timothy G. Kremer. "In a nutshell, it's the law that needs to be changed, not regulations."

NYSSBA has proposed amendments that would allow districts to operate under a 3012-c or 3012-d plan and maintain their aid increases, so long as the plan is implemented. This proposal would also allow districts to revert to a 3012-c plan.

The Regents' action follows a court decision (see story on page 5) that takes aim at aspects of the APPR law tied to student test results and comes as several bills introduced in the state Legislature seek to sever or neutralize the funding penalty.

Several members of the Board of Regents also remain outspoken critics of the APPR law and bristled at the need to continue revising regulations when they would prefer to see it scrapped entirely.

"I hope the Legislature will take a look at 3012-d so we don't have to do this, but right now, we have to do this," said Regent Roger Tilles of Long Island.

"At what point do we say the law is wrong, and what do we do about that," said Regent Judith Johnson of Rockland County. "The issue is bigger than just the law. It is who makes educational policy for the children of New York State - the Regents or the Legislature?"

Nonetheless, a majority of the Regents voted to approve the regulatory tweaks, with several noting Elia and others are working on a host of plans for revising state learning standards, testing practices and teacher and principal evaluations. Also, under a moratorium recommended by a governor's task force and approved by the Regents in December, the law's most controversial features - its reliance on state test results and related calculations of "growth" - are on hold and under review.

"The law is in place," Elia said. "It was signed last year, and it is not something that you, as the Regents, or I, as the commissioner, can overturn."

"This is making a bad situation, perhaps, not quite as bad," said Regents Vice Chancellor T. Andrew Brown of Rochester.

Trikalinos presented about a half-dozen technical adjustments to the rules implementing APPR plans under the 2015 law.

Among other things, the changes would provide:

• More leeway for districts to provide "final ratings" for teachers and principals after Sept. 1 of the following school year. Those ratings still will be calculated, but during this transitional period they don't count in terms of employment consequences for educators - so, there is less urgency to provide them. The Sept. 1 deadline continues for teachers and principals to receive transitional ratings, which are unplugged from state test results.
• Additional discretion in how student learning objectives (SLOs) and other measures of student performance are used and calculated.
• Greater flexibility to use existing local scoring systems for teacher observations by aligning regulations with current practice in more school districts.