Legislature mulls new teacher evaluation system proposed by NYSSBA and other education groups |
On Board Online • April 8, 2024
By Brian Fessler
Director of Governmental Relations
A proposal to change how schools and BOCES evaluate teachers and principals is being considered by state legislators. It reflects a consensus among advocacy groups representing school board members, superintendents, teachers, school business officials, principals and PTAs.
On March 20, the Educational Conference Board (ECB), of which NYSSBA is a member, announced it had reached agreement with the State Education Department (SED) on proposed legislation to reform New York's teacher and principal evaluation laws, better known as APPR (annual professional performance review).
In envisioning a new APPR approach, NYSSBA desired a system that restores local control. The proposal also would:
- Decouple student test scores from ratings.
- Return focus to educator development and improvement.
- Provide flexibility so that districts and BOCES will not be required to immediately negotiate and shift to a new and different system, unless they prefer to do so.
Education Commissioner Betty Rosa and NYSUT President Melinda Person hand delivered copies of the draft legislation to the chairs of both the Senate and Assembly education committees in March.
"We think the consensus proposal will be well received by the Legislature," said NYSSBA Executive Director Robert Schneider.
"This has been a major undertaking," Schneider added. "NYSSBA and its colleagues in the ECB dedicated much of 2023 and early 2024 discussing respective needs, priorities and goals for a new evaluation system, resulting a plan that all can support."
If the Legislature approves the plan, it will represent a return to local control after a federal plan to bring more accountability to teacher and principal evaluation alienated teachers and contributed to skepticism over the value of annual tests as measures of student or school progress.
In 2009, then-President Barack Obama announced the Race to the Top, a $4.35 billion federal grant program for K-12 public education. States could win large or small grants depending on how well their education plans satisfied a set of announced federal priorities, including incorporating student test score data into teacher rating systems.
In 2010, then-Governor David Paterson signed a new comprehensive teacher and principal evaluation system into law (section 3021-c of the state education law), and New York State received $700 million in funding through the federal Race to the Top program.
The current APPR system (section 3012-d of the state education law) dates to 2015 and relied heavily on student performance results on grades 3-8 state assessments.
The 2019-20 state budget eliminated the requirement to use state tests to measure student performance and provided more flexibility to allow districts to select local assessments. Generally, half of an educator's evaluation is based on classroom observations, while the other half is based on test scores.
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a series of pauses in APPR requirements.
In June 2020, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order exempting school districts from completing APPR for classroom teachers and building principals during the 2019-20 school year without the loss of state aid. In both 2021 and 2022, legislation was passed and signed which eliminated the requirement for school districts and BOCES to complete APPR for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years.
The ECB/SED proposal would establish an evaluation system that is subject to local negotiation and would not mandate the inclusion of student performances measures. The system would include multiple measures aligned with state teaching and leadership standards, resulting in a four-level rating system. A "4" would indicate performance that exceeds expectations, while a "1" would indicate performance that is significantly below expectations. Districts and BOCES would have until 2032 to transition to the new system.
"NYSSBA is proud to have worked side by side with our partners in the education community to develop this proposal," said NYSSBA President Sandra Ruffo. "We believe this proposal ultimately will better serve our communities because it represents a shift in the way we evaluate our teachers and principals from an overly prescriptive state-mandated process to one that is negotiated locally by school districts."
Upon receiving the draft legislation, Senate Education Chair Shelley Mayer said: "Thank you for reaching agreement ... who can do that? It's very hard to do that around here."
The proposal had not been introduced as stand alone legislation when this issue of On Board went to press in early April, but that is expected soon.
"I generally don't make predictions like this, but yeah, I think it will be done that fast," said Michael Benedetto, chair of the Assembly Education Committee.