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Gov. Andrew Cuomo has come under fire recently as legislators pursue a budget that includes several education reforms, including what has been seen as negative change to teachers’ Annual Professional Performance Review.
Under the reform, student state test scores count as 50 percent of teacher and principal evaluations, prompting Scarsdale Board of Education President Mary Beth Gose to note that “a single assessment cannot provide appropriate information about practice, and we encourage a system of evaluation that uses multiple points of data.”
Gose argued the implementation of the system has led to “system redundancies and the over-testing of students.” She added the legislature should appoint a committee of those invested in education to find an appropriate middle ground.
“The state legislature should convene a group of educators, school administrators, lawmakers and state officials to create an evaluation system that focuses less on improving test scores and more on providing meaningful feedback that improves instruction,” she said.
The final 50 percent of the system is decided through teacher evaluations, but only 15 percent of those evaluations are performed by district officials, leaving 35 percent to be determined by an independent observer, something else board members oppose.
“The Scarsdale School District has always embraces accountability with a robust and meaningful evaluation process that promotes professional growth,” Gose wrote to Cuomo. “We support the use of data to make meaningful decisions about student progress; however, we are not convinced that a single, high-stakes assessment is the appropriate means to accomplish that goal.”
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