The New York legislature passed a law shifting teacher evaluation to districts. The law does not prevent linking teacher evaluations to student test scores. It allows districts to choose the tests, subject to the approval of the state commissioner.
The state and NYC teachers’ unions are happy with the bill.
The leaders of Opt Out say it’s a hoax. They say it shifts the responsibility to evaluate teachers by high-stakes tests from the state to districts. This “change” is no change.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Problem is those making policy have no clue. Plus, $$$$$ and control drive their actions.
it is so much like listening, week after week after week, year after year after year, as certain political show pundits never ever stop loudly saying that test-score/merit-pay/choice school reform is the only answer: no clue, but also having no interest in getting a clue
I am a union leader in my school. I am certainly not happy with the bill at all. It’s just slightly better because we can negotiate what scores to use but scores we will use. And that just stinks. Again… not happy with it. That and the tax cap being voted permanent is enough to really dislike those very members of the senate that we helped elect.
Teacher friends have told me that unions believe they can continue the arrangement whereby many teachers in a district will be evaluated by how high school students perform on the Regents ELA exam–one that historically they do well on.
But Elia has to approve any SLO. What makes unions think that she will allow teachers to have a cushy arrangement? She has a long track record of building systems predicated on firing teachers for low student test score growth.
Kevin Coyne on the NYSUT Board of Directors posted on FB a widely shared critique of NYSAPE for “‘sowing seeds of doubt’ among rank and file membership.” NYSAPE is trying to protect teachers, and Coyne, Palotta, Mulgrew etc. are cozying up to Elia thinking that she will remember the favor. Do not bet on it.
More fuel for the OptOut movement for which I am so grateful.
Pallas writes, “Whether one supports or opposes the bills under consideration may hinge on how much one trusts the Commissioner and the State Education Department, both of whom are subject to accountability pressures from the federal government, and the Every Student Succeeds Act.”
What evidence is there that public school teachers with integrity should trust anyone who went along with the “build the plane while we fly it” common core lunacy in New York State? After the damage these flunkies and kissers up have done to our schools and our children, the burden of proof is on them. They’ll need to work damn hard to regain my trust, that’s for sure.
People focus on Trump all day long -for good reason. But I think the standardized testing bobbleheads have done their own, unique damage to our democracy.
Can the tests. Period.
Well said, John.
No reason to trust the state education department.
I am confused how to read this move beyond the obvious [state trying to sidestep a politically- unpopular hot potato]. It sounds like it might be undercutting Elia’s power, & moving some power into local hands, which would be a good thing. However the underlying structure remains the same: Elia hews to a DofEd-friendly accountability scheme; whatever locals come up w/ will be subj to state approval, no? And as some note, locals will lean toward budget-friendly, which may, via inertia, be whatever they’re already doing…
Perhaps the best that can be hoped for is: multiple locals pursue a different [less test-heavy] direction, & state, overwhelmed by multi-directional chaos, loses its iron grip for long enough for some sensible grass-roots-driven methods to take root.
Elia is in control. The district has to use a test approved by her.
Sheis test-mad.
She knows that the easy way out for districts is to simply use the state tests already in place. This brings NY schools back to 2013. Failed ideas from the John King era.
AGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH!!!!!!!!!
The logistics, oversight, and enforcement required for this idea to be implemented in 700 school districts make it not only unmanageable, but way too easy to game. Ellia’s misguided faith in linking test scores to evaluations will quickly become an inside joke among teachers and administrators. SLOs and the HEDI scores they produce for APPR evaluations have zero credibility already. And sadly this failed practice will draw desperately needed time and energy away from more useful ways to improve teaching and learning.
Well said. Just seeing some of those idiotic acronyms, SLOs and HEDI, makes my blood pressure go up. I can feel it in my arteries. Yup, state ed keeps wasting precious time…time of teachers…..time that could be much better used by our students. And, given how busy people are nowadays, what kind of tragic farce is that! It’s like the exact opposite of what we need to be doing right at this moment in history.
Imagine someone with heart disease who goes to a doctor. And, the doc then tells the patient to take up cigarettes and eating lots of fatty foods and spending a lot more time on the couch. Oh, and by the way, you need more stress in your life. How about becoming a classroom teacher in a school that’s obsessed with standardized testing? . I’d walk out of that office…no, I’d flee from that office. And, I’d call that doctor a quack.
The people coming up with this school reform crap are QUACKS.