An Eminently Fair Teacher-Evaluation Proposal

June 3, 2015

By Tenicka Boyd
Crain’s New York Business Op-Ed

“As a mother of a New York City public-school student, I know firsthand how a great teacher can help open up new worlds and unlock a child’s full potential. Countless studies confirm the critical role that teacher quality has on a student’s ability to learn. That’s why the current debate in Albany over teacher evaluations is so important. A strong evaluation system is an essential step in ensuring that every child in New York has an effective teacher.”

Great Teachers Save Lives (Literally)

May 31, 2015

By Jonah Edelman
The Daily Beast

“Stephanie Stuck is a spunky high school senior who’s full of life, humor, and optimism. But it wasn’t always like that.

Growing up in a small town just south of Portland, Oregon, Stephanie barely knew her mother, and from a young age she bounced from foster home to foster home.”

Teacher Who ‘Lost’ Two 4-year-olds Can’t Be Fired

May 30, 2015

By Yoav Gonen
New York Post

“A Brooklyn teacher who “lost” two 4-year-olds from her class during a single school day can’t be fired by the Department of Education, an arbitrator ruled.”

The Tenure Lawsuit Still Matters: Recently Passed Reforms Don’t Change the Fact That it’s Virtually Impossible to Remove an Ineffective Veteran Teacher

May 28, 2015

By Katharine B. Stevens
New York Daily News

“In a little-noticed legal action Wednesday, the state teachers union is once again attempting to toss out the teacher tenure lawsuit launched last July, which argues that New York’s laws protecting educators from termination violate children’s constitutional right to a “sound basic education.””

Delay in the New Teacher Evaluations Can’t be the First Step in a Complete Cave-In

May 26, 2015

The Buffalo News Opinion

“That was fast.

Hardly six weeks after passing a new state budget that included important changes in the teacher evaluation system and aggressive deadlines for imposing them, the Assembly retreated en masse, voting 135-1 to slow it down.”

Assembly Panders to Teachers on Evaluations

May 25, 2015

Newsday Editorial Board

“The bill on education and teacher evaluations passed 135-1 last week by the State Assembly is almost certainly a dead end, but it may have set some sort of speed record. After all, the Assembly, Senate and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had agreed to a new evaluation plan less than two months ago.”

‘Opt-Out’ Becomes Anti-Test Rallying Cry in New York State

May 20, 2015

By Elizabeth A. Harris and Ford Fessenden
The New York Times

“BOICEVILLE, N.Y. — It started with a speech in the fall, to parents who had gathered in the auditorium to learn what to expect during the nascent school year.

“I spoke at the open house and said, ‘We hope you’ll opt out of the tests,’ ” said Heather Roberts, vice president of the Bennett Intermediate School parent teacher association. Last year, 92 percent of eligible students in the Catskill Mountains district that includes Boiceville took their standardized English tests. “Jaws dropped.””

Campbell Brown: Bad Laws, Unions Keep Dangerous Teachers on the Job

May 19, 2015

By Jason Russell
Washington Examiner

“NEW ORLEANS — Abusive teachers prey on students in classrooms across the country — and too often there’s nothing parents can do about it. Laws actually protect many teachers from being fired even when it’s clear they are guilty of wrongdoing.”

61 Years After Brown v. Board of Education, Many Schools Remain Separate and Unequal

May 18, 2015

By Rebecca Klein
Huffington Post Education

“Decades after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling declared segregated schooling of black students unconstitutional, many American schools with high minority populations continue to receive fewer resources and provide an education that’s inferior to schools with large white populations.”

The Importance of Teacher Evaluations

May 17, 2015

By Jenny Sedlis
City & State

“The greatest single factor impacting a student’s ability to learn is the quality of the teacher in the classroom. But right now, parents across the state cannot count on a system that rates 95 percent of teachers across New York state as effective, despite the fact that just a third of public school students are considered proficient in English and math. Something doesn’t add up and something has to change so students across the state get the education they deserve no matter what school they attend. Central to that improvement is developing a better system to assess the educators.”

Partnership for Educational Justice