An outstanding music teacher tells Governor Cuomo why his reform plan is a bad idea
By carolcorbettburris, January 31, 2015
Doreen Fryling is a remarkable teacher of music, as well as a public school mom. She is does not support Cuomo’s efforts to make test scores 50% of a teacher evaluation. Although Cuomo now mocks the present APPR system, he helped create it. He said it was “one of the toughest in the country”. And now he says it is baloney, so he wants to put some crushed glass in the sandwich.
Here is what Doreen wrote. I am so proud to be her principal.
Dear Governor Cuomo,
I am compelled to write to you regarding your proposed changes to the New York State Teacher Evaluations. This letter is an attempt to offer you a teacher’s perspective of your new evaluation proposal. I have been impressed by your willingness to explore multiple perspectives on other issues facing the people in the great State of New York. I write with the hope that you are indeed a reasonable leader who really does have good intentions. I offer this letter publicly because I believe it is an opportunity to inspire others to generate ideas that can help students.
Governor, there are those who say that you have fabricated a crisis in education because you have been bought or that you are settling a political score with the teacher’s union for not endorsing you in the last election. I will leave the speculation to others and merely address your current proposal and how it affects my children, my colleagues, my students, and me.
I teach in a school district on Long Island, one that consistently excels in all it does for all of its students. We are not a failing school district, nor are we in crisis. Unfortunately, changes made by your administration in the past, and certainly your new proposal, threaten the very stability and excellence that we currently provide to our students. I see this threat in the school district in which I teach and also in my children’s schools.
There are negative consequences to your teacher evaluation program. Curriculum is being narrowed to focus more on test prep in math and English. Students have less access to a broad exposure to the arts, social studies, sciences, and languages. Teachers are becoming demoralized, as the profession they entered out of a love for learning is slowly eroded into become a singular effort to raise standardized test scores. When you propose to make 50% of a teacher’s effectiveness score based on these tests, you shift the priority of teaching for the sake of An outstanding music teacher tells Governor Cuomo why his reform plan is a bad idea | Round the Inkwell: