This just in! Cynthia Nixon calls for repeal of test-based evaluation of teachers. This law was passed to meet the non-evidence-based demands of Race to the Top. It has been a complete failure in New York. The American Statistical Association said in 2014 that individual teachers should not be evaluated by the test scores of their students. Highly flawed and inaccurate!
For Immediate Release
April 26, 2018
Contact: press@cynthiafornewyork.com
Cynthia Nixon Calls for Repeal of Cuomo’s Failed APPR Teacher Evaluation System
Diane Ravitch joins other educators in launching ‘Educators for Cynthia’ to elect a bona fide public education advocate who prioritizes learning, not testing in New York schools
BUFFALO, NY — On the eve of the New York State United Teachers Representative Assembly in Buffalo, Cynthia Nixon, candidate for governor, called on Andrew Cuomo today to immediately repeal the teacher evaluation system he championed. Known as the Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR), Cuomo’s teacher evaluation system relies on high-stakes testing to evaluate teachers. Education historian Diane Ravitch and dozens of New York educators are rallying behind Cynthia Nixon’s demands with the launch of Educators for Cynthia. Signers include teachers, principals, school board members, superintendents, SUNY and CUNY professors, and former NYSUT statewide officers.
At the time APPR was enacted, Cuomo described it as “one of the greatest legacies for me and the state.” But it helped spur 25 percent of parents to opt out of state tests and was roundly denounced by educators and advocates. Cuomo has since tried to distance himself from the APPR, but it remains on the books, including requirements for additional standardized tests that serve no educational purposes other than to grade teachers.
“A couple years ago Andrew Cuomo described teacher evaluation based on high stakes testing as one of his greatest legacies, now he is hoping that parents and teachers have forgotten all about it,” Cynthia Nixon said. “Enough of the delays and excuses Governor Cuomo, it is time to repeal the APPR now.”
“Cynthia Nixon has a vision that will put education on the right track by refocusing New York schools on the dignity of teaching and the joy of learning,” said Diane Ravitch, education historian. “She will provide the resources our children need to succeed. Andrew Cuomo’s policies have disrespected teachers as a profession and undermined the education of our children.”
The “Educators for Cynthia” group cites additional education reform priorities Cynthia supports including: providing students a rich and balanced curriculum rather than one oriented around standardized tests; ensuring equitable school funding by fully funding Foundation Aid; and delivering fair and full funding for SUNY and CUNY to expand opportunity and improve quality.
“Our public school teachers must be treasured and lifted up for the hard work they do every day in the classroom educating our children. Instead, Andrew Cuomo has vilified and punished teachers, underfunded our neediest schools and deprived students of the educational opportunities and social and emotional supports they need, and placed SUNY and CUNY on a starvation diet which undermines the quality of higher education and decreases opportunities for students who need a leg up,” Cynthia said. “As governor I will make public education from pre-K through college a top priority, our children and our future depends on it.”
“Andrew Cuomo is the king of test and punish education reform,” said Marla Kilfoyle, a teacher in the Oceanside Schools. “He insisted that teachers had to be evaluated based upon standardized tests even though all the evidence said it was bankrupt idea. He has refused to repeal his own failed policy and Cynthia Nixon is a breath of fresh air. She has a strong record on standing up for our public schools and teachers and I am proud to support her.”
Anyone interested in joining Educators for Cynthia can do so at http://cynthiafornewyork.com/educators.
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I’m really excited to have a gubernatorial candidate who supports us. It will be great to finally be able to vote for someone, rather than simply against Cuomo.
YES! May she be the first of many! May she be successful in her efforts to supplant an Ed Reform icon!
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
“At the time APPR was enacted, Cuomo described it as “one of the greatest legacies for me and the state”
Undoubtedly right, just not in the sense he intended.
may this argument be a true prophesy
Only hours after Cynthia Nixon called for a repeal of the NY teacher evaluation law, the State Assembly introduced a bill to repeal it.
As Leonie Haimson said on Twitter, Cynthia has accomplished more in a few weeks as a candidate than Cuomo has in 8 years as governor. The teacher evaluation program, as harsh and punitive as possible, was supposed to be Cuomo’s “legacy,” but now it seems even he wants to pretend he never heard of it.
This is wonderful news. And there’s already a petition to repeal the NYS Teacher Evaluation Law started by two NYC Public School Teachers to be delivered to Michael Mulgrew, Governor Andrew Cuomo, The New York State House, and The New York State Senate
Sign on at:
https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/repeal-nys-teacher-evaluatio?source=embedhomepage
As one of the teachers who wrote the petition to repeal the teacher evaluation law, I urge everyone to sign it. More information is available here at the Independent Community of Educators blog.
http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/petition-to-repeal-nys-teacher.html
NY Assembly bill A04016 sponsored by Ra aims to do just that, was referred LAST jan to ed committee and disappeared, came back THIS Jan, and yet NYSUT has been silent and my Dem rep in assembly (on ed committee) as well as the head of the ed committee (Nolan (D)) have seemed non-commital. I have had in person conversations with both. Of course when Astorino brought the heat on ed issues, Cuomo suddenly found the edu love in his heart, so who knows. It might happen!
Cuomo is “hoping that parents and teachers have forgotten all about it”. Fat chance! I know I haven’t.
An educator that votes for Cuomo is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders! NYSUT and all teachers need to get behind public school educational advocate Cynthia Nixon.
Cuomo’s got to go!
This is indeed breaking news, and we should have reason to be strengthened in our fight.
But realize that the body politic, even if it repeals the current APPR, is NOT interested in designing the law so that teacher evaluations will become unlinked to test scores. Instead, Current Albany is potentially interested in allowing each individual school district to decide whether or not they want to tie any kind of scores (standardized and/or otherwise).
I guess I have to assume, based on Nixon’s rhetoric, that she wants NOTHING to do with tying scores to teacher evaluations, and that clearly she is against this barbaric and outright stupid practice.
I would opine that the practice should be outlawed and NOT left up to any district as a choice of negotiation. Because the practice is so detrimental to children’s cognitive and emotional development, it needs to be outlawed. I hope Nixon supports that, even if she alone does not get to make the decision should she become Governor. But she would have enormous sway.
I support Nixon.
Do not be surprised if Cuomo comes out in favor of repealing his own APPR because he has to take the issue away.
It’s wonderful to watch Cynthia proposing progressive policies, then Cuomo jumps on the train to show that he too is progressive. Legalizing marijuana. He waited eight years but saw the light as soon as Cynthia endorsed it. She is winning the war of ideas.
She is winning my heart and vote . . . . LOVE her!
You called it. The Times Union reports that Cuomo began discussing the repeal bill with Assembly Democrats “hours after” Cynthia unveiled her plan to end APPR.
So after years of parent opt-outs, teacher protests, moratoriums and courts ruling APPR invalid, it seems a pretty sudden turnabout.
The same happened when Cuomo announced action on single use plastic bags, and cancelled the Williams gas pipeline while Cynthia was visiting Rockaway, and announced interest in legalizing marijuana and announced he would be restoring voter rights for felons.
Teachers are certainly smart enough to see Cuomo’s political calculations for what they are.
And they are also smart enough not to trust him, having been burned many times in the past with his lovey dovey promises.
Cuomo may think he is showing up support, but what he is really doing is demonstrating his own intellectual and moral bankruptcy.
The fellow is pathetic. He’s actually dumb enough to think teachers will buy it.
How he is the offspring of Mario Cuomo is a complete mystery.
APPR is New York’s version of VAM, which has been so soundly discredited, the ed reformers aren’t even willing to debate it’s validity. A ruling in the Sheri Lederman case found it “arbitrary and capricious”, violating teachers rights because it’s algorithms are subjective, hidden and unverifiable. APPR has been in a moratorium for years, yet still used for “advisory” purposes in a total waste of taxpayer dollars.
Cuomo wrote an op-ed for Newsday defending APPR which showed he didn’t even understand how it works. He believed only Math and ELA teachers are affected, unaware that NY districts “piggyback” test scores for ALL teachers. This means APPR generates rankings for art, music or gym teachers based on Math or English scores even when the teacher has never even met the students tested.
IIt’s even more absurd that hundreds of NY districts piggyback off a single test given by one teacher. So even if you believe Math or English test scores show teacher impact (and they do not), the implementation of APPR in NY has been an absolute farce, costing millions for nothing in return.
When a federal court in Houston invalidated VAM evaluations for Texas, ruling that any algorithms kept secret are invalid because they are “unverifiable”, it laid the groundwork for similar arguments in all 50 states, begging the question – who vetted APPR in the first place? In NY, neither the legislature, the unions, the media or state ed officials ever vetted or piloted APPR before making it law.
The NY State Board of Regents did promise a review of APPR last fall, but have not followed through. The Education Commissioner has stated that development of a new evaluation system will be a slow, deliberative process likely to drag on for years.
Bravo!
No amount of fudging by any psychmagician can make appr valid. It is a four letter acronym that is a turd that must be flushed!
If the legislature wishes to create another invalid evaluation system, let them creat an Every Constituent Succeeds Act. They can measure the average wage in their district, homelessness, unemployment, health care, BMI, etc in their district and rank themselves!
Maybe the Dark Ages of Ed Reform are starting to die. With the strikes bringing attention to the deplorable conditions in schools and the nation waking up to the fact the Public Schools are under attack, I think the reformers are going to have one helluva time convincing people that their agenda is for the best. It has taken years to get teachers so fed up they are willing to risk everything to expose this, but in the end I think us peons wll fight the “monied elite” and send them packing. Pandora’s box has opened………………
Nw if only Florida would wake up and get rid of Corcoran and Scott………………
The privatization movement is dying, dying, dying.
Like the witch in Wizard of Oz, it is melting.