“Cuomo Seeks Speedy Change in Teacher Evaluations” by Thomas Kaplan
New York Times, March 1, 2011
Topic: Cuomo’s bill seeks to put legislation into place that will create an evaluation system to help determine who should be laid off with budget cuts.
Summary: A bill in NY would create new standards for teacher evaluation. Governor Cuomo wants to “move beyond the so-called last in, first out system of relying exclusively on seniority”.
Intended audience: Teachers, general public
Key Points:
- Senate passed legislation that reverses a rule protecting “long-serving” NYC teachers from layoffs.
- New standards have been developed with support from teachers’ unions.
- Budget cuts may force lay-offs of 4600 teachers in NYC. Applying new standards can help decide who to lay-off.
- The bill may or may not make it past the Senate… wait and see.
Relevance: Teacher evaluation is a hot topic in our “cloud”. It’s something that is concerning – how can evaluation be objective, who does the evaluation, and how do you really know what the results mean? Also, why should teachers that have been around for decades be retained while excellent young teachers are being let go?
this is an interesting topic. i have always felt uncomfortable about the idea of strong, innovative new teachers getting laid off when there are protected 'old timers' in the system who definitely should have been retired years ago. i guess what it boils down to for me is what criteria are used in determining the evaluations. everyone is scrambling to figure out the best way to deal with these budget cuts. it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
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