NYC Educator: The Evaluation Trap--What's the UFT Planning?

NYC Educator: The Evaluation Trap--What's the UFT Planning?:

The Evaluation Trap--What's the UFT Planning?

by NYC Educator

It's been a while since UFT President Michael Mulgrew went to Albany and negotiated a statewide evaluation system. Part of that agreement was that value-added testing would comprise 20%, 25%, 40%, or even 100% of a teacher rating. It depends who you ask, and perhaps also when you ask.

The debate over percentages does not much interest me. I'm firmly persuaded that the optimal percentage of VAM in a teacher rating is zero. UFT people I speak to say, well, what if you have a crazy principal who gives you a U for no reason? And yes I know there are principals like that. But I fail to see how diluting that crazy principal's rating with junk science by 20, 25, 40, or whatever percentage will help anything. Why aren't we talking about removing crazy principals rather than evaluating teachers out of work for no reason?

Here's the thing--a UFT rep came to my school last year and heard a whole lot of complaints about having gone