Analysis: The Politics of Teacher Testing
New York City children are becoming “pawns” in a political struggle over teacher evaluation, warns a prominent advocate for children and parents.
Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters says the battle over teacher evaluation in Albany could harm the city’s 1.1 million school children. Gov. Andrew Cuomo plans to withhold $260 million in school aid to the city because it missed a deadline to finalize a system for evaluating teachers.
Sheldon Silver, Speaker of the State Assembly, voiced a similar concern. “No one wants to see our children’s education suffer because teachers and the city could not come to an agreement,” Silver said in a statement Sunday, according to The New York Times.
Mayor Bloomberg and the United Federation of Teachers tried to negotiate a plan for a system to evaluate 75,000 teachers. The deadline was Jan. 17. The two sides couldn’t agree. And now, a court
