Taking Teacher Evaluation to Extremes
New York state’s recent success in winning approximately $700 million in federal Race to the Top money might be attributed to its concept for a new teacher-evaluation system that holds teachers accountable for the performance of their students on state and standardized measures in math and English in grades 4-8.
In that vein, New York’s school district leaders were strongly encouraged to sign a “memorandum of understanding” last summer to ensure that they “understood” the general concept behind the proposal, even though the details of the plan remained vague. Superintendents and boards of education were assured that all would be fine in the end as New York would receive its money—and then worry about the details. The state requested time, patience, and a little faith from those running the school districts.
In an article on the New York State School Boards Association’s website, state Commissioner of Education David Steiner challenged skeptics of the not-yet-fully-
