NY’s 2013 ‘High School Principal of Year’ is fighting state over reform
New York State’s new High School Principal of the Year is Carol Burris, a school leader in Long Island who has been a leader in a fight with state officials over reforms, including standardized test-based educator evaluations.Burris, a frequent guest blogger on The Answer Sheet, was given the award jointly by the School Administrators Association of New York and the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Burris has been principal of South Side High School in the Rockville Centre Union Free School District for 13 years. She was named the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State.
What is especially interesting about this new award is that Burris is a leader in the fight against test-based accountability in New York State. She is one of the co-authors of a principals’ letter against evaluating teachers by student test scores, which has been signed by more than 1,500 New York principals. She has written powerfully (see below) about the damage standardized tests are doing to students, and about the evaluation system that New York officials are imposing on educators that is heavily based on student standardized test scores and that is being implemented before it is fully designed.
The release announcing her newest award says in part:
Burris is most widely lauded for her ardent efforts to eliminate tracking at the high school – offering paths of more rigorous study and increased opportunity for each and every student. By raising expectations, opening doors, and using high quality
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