The current system connecting 20% of test scores to the teachers evaluation does not really distinguish teachers as being highly effective, effective, developing or in developing. The success of the child accounts for too many factors as does the failures. Factors that are out of the teacher's control. Factors like home life, motivation and innate intelligence. What happens at home is a big influence on a child. What he is taught about being educated . How important it is he do well at home. A teacher is a very influential person in a students life. She can change a child to motivate him/her but not everyone. People never speak of intelligence in the discussion of state tests. A natural percentage of students are not able to do well on the test. Their reading levels or math levels are behind. The teachers who work with these kids see success but it can't be measured by the tests. To now make a teacher's evaluation score be 50% or how their students perform on tests is ridiculous. There is more to teaching than tests and more to students than how they test.
Michelle - 9 years ago
The current APPR lacks validity. It operates under a number of misconceptions. The first misconception is that all children learn the same material at the same rate. This misconception leads to the belief that good teaching leads to students who perform well on assessments. This misconception operates on the assumption that every child arrives at school ready to learn and every teacher has appropriate research-based materials to support student learning. It is also assumed that the assessments purchased from the foreign company PEARSON are valid and reliable. Where is the evidence these assessments measure what they say they measure? Now let's consider the "free" modules provided by the state which are "Common Core Aligned." These curricula have not been field test. Where is the evidence to demonstrate a positive impact on student learning through the use of these "modules"? How can this current APPR be considered valid and reliable when it is based on a flawed assessment system? We need to take back our educational system and not line the pockets of Pearson with $40 million. How much could we save taxpayers without these assessments? A skilled educator can tell how well your child reads in about 10 minutes. Why would we pay a foreign company $40 million and require children to take an ELA test for three days? An individual can walk into motor vehicle and pass a permit test in 20 minutes but an 8 year old child is required to sit in front of a test for 70 minutes a day over several days. This is BIG GOVERNMENT handing our educational system to private corporations. Get involved and go to board meetings. Call the governor and tell him our public schools are not for sale.
Lyn - 9 years ago
Only if APPR is meaningful.
Gail - 9 years ago
Teachers have been evaluated yearly all along. The appr changed that the Governor is proposing are just plain rediculous and punitive. The standardized testing that is being used is a complicated, extremely difficult, lengthily assessment that students are told to complete in a very short time frame (70 minutes). On top of that any questions that students don't get to are marked incorrect. Students with disabilities are also forced to take these assessments. Their scores are also included and imbedded in the school districts overall scores. So you see there are many factors that go into this loaded question. I have only just touched the surface. Parents, please tell everyone you know to vote... Help your schools and your children.
Richard - 9 years ago
To dismiss the most rigorous teacher evaluation techniques ever put in to place, as "baloney" is to ignore the possibility that 90% of teachers aren’t so bad after all. The desperate state of social inequality (that charter schools will exacerbate) is perhaps the biggest factor .The governor is trying to hold public education hostage by threatening to decrease funding if he doesn’t get his way. This is like a spoiled child who insists everyone must play by his rules or he will take his ball and go home.
Jess - 9 years ago
It is important to evaluate the effectivess of teachers but when teachers have to play guessing games for one portion of the evaluation and some student assessments have NOTHING to do with the curriculum being taught..... It question the validity of the evaluation system. TIME FOR CHANGE!!
Chris - 9 years ago
An accurate evaluation takes into account not just what the employee does but also how it affects the other members of his/her work team, the customer base, etc. So have teachers observed by education professionals and have them assemble student work portfolios to be judged by colleagues to ascertain their effectiveness.
Robin - 9 years ago
The question is badly worded. Yes, evaluations can measure effectiveness IF THE EVALUATIONS ARE APPROPRIATE. The current APPR weights the students' scores on standardized tests too heavily, and Cuomo's proposed revision to the APPR would weight them even more heavily. Standardized tests are not accurate measurements of real learning, so using them as a measurement of teacher effectiveness is also not accurate. I don't know any teachers who think they should be exempt from observation or evaluation...they just want to be evaluated _fairly_.
Bernie - 9 years ago
Teachers are evaluated every year and thier evaluation should not be based on 1 state exam. Frank you are clearly misinformed! Teachers are evaluated like everyone else. In the business world when your employees don't perform, you fire them. As educators we are not in the business of firing students! We have to educate all students - even those who are at-risk and not performing on grade level.
So an evaluation that accounts for all factors of a teacher's performance would be most effective!
Kevin - 9 years ago
I bet we waste a lot of money on evaluations and expensive administrators and super superintendents.
Lets forego all that and instead use that money to hire 2 teachers per classroom for more student teacher interaction.
And get teachers into suitable 401k plans, not life long money sucking pensions.
Jasen - 9 years ago
Evaluations are fine. It's the method that is flawed. It's like rating how good a cop is by how many tickets he writes. Start teaching kids to thinks NOT how to think. Study after study has shown that increasing spending does nothing to produce better students, so stop worrying about securing funds. NOTHING is more effective then good parents who get involved with their child's education.
Jasen - 9 years ago
Evaluations are fine. It's the method that is flawed. It's like rating how good a cop is by how many tickets he writes. Start teaching kids to thinks NOT how to think. Study after study has shown that increasing spending does nothing to produce better students, so stop worrying about securing funds. NOTHING is more effective then good parents who get involved with their child's education.
Norma - 9 years ago
Teachers are not opposed to an evaluation system. However, the goal of a teacher evaluation is to improve instruction. The governor's plan is punitive. It will not be implemented to improve public education but to destroy it because this is the agenda of his millionaire backers. The conversation should be about the effects of poverty on education and about funding equity for all public schools.
Kate - 9 years ago
Teachers receive yearly evaluations based on observations conducted by administrators in their schools as well as their department heads in their districts. These snapshots into the classroom, along with other information gleaned from teachers, help to create observations that are much more pertinent than the current APPR.
Frank - 9 years ago
Why wouldn't a teacher require at least an annual evaluation ( like EVERYBODY who WORKS for a living).?
The current system connecting 20% of test scores to the teachers evaluation does not really distinguish teachers as being highly effective, effective, developing or in developing. The success of the child accounts for too many factors as does the failures. Factors that are out of the teacher's control. Factors like home life, motivation and innate intelligence. What happens at home is a big influence on a child. What he is taught about being educated . How important it is he do well at home. A teacher is a very influential person in a students life. She can change a child to motivate him/her but not everyone. People never speak of intelligence in the discussion of state tests. A natural percentage of students are not able to do well on the test. Their reading levels or math levels are behind. The teachers who work with these kids see success but it can't be measured by the tests. To now make a teacher's evaluation score be 50% or how their students perform on tests is ridiculous. There is more to teaching than tests and more to students than how they test.
The current APPR lacks validity. It operates under a number of misconceptions. The first misconception is that all children learn the same material at the same rate. This misconception leads to the belief that good teaching leads to students who perform well on assessments. This misconception operates on the assumption that every child arrives at school ready to learn and every teacher has appropriate research-based materials to support student learning. It is also assumed that the assessments purchased from the foreign company PEARSON are valid and reliable. Where is the evidence these assessments measure what they say they measure? Now let's consider the "free" modules provided by the state which are "Common Core Aligned." These curricula have not been field test. Where is the evidence to demonstrate a positive impact on student learning through the use of these "modules"? How can this current APPR be considered valid and reliable when it is based on a flawed assessment system? We need to take back our educational system and not line the pockets of Pearson with $40 million. How much could we save taxpayers without these assessments? A skilled educator can tell how well your child reads in about 10 minutes. Why would we pay a foreign company $40 million and require children to take an ELA test for three days? An individual can walk into motor vehicle and pass a permit test in 20 minutes but an 8 year old child is required to sit in front of a test for 70 minutes a day over several days. This is BIG GOVERNMENT handing our educational system to private corporations. Get involved and go to board meetings. Call the governor and tell him our public schools are not for sale.
Only if APPR is meaningful.
Teachers have been evaluated yearly all along. The appr changed that the Governor is proposing are just plain rediculous and punitive. The standardized testing that is being used is a complicated, extremely difficult, lengthily assessment that students are told to complete in a very short time frame (70 minutes). On top of that any questions that students don't get to are marked incorrect. Students with disabilities are also forced to take these assessments. Their scores are also included and imbedded in the school districts overall scores. So you see there are many factors that go into this loaded question. I have only just touched the surface. Parents, please tell everyone you know to vote... Help your schools and your children.
To dismiss the most rigorous teacher evaluation techniques ever put in to place, as "baloney" is to ignore the possibility that 90% of teachers aren’t so bad after all. The desperate state of social inequality (that charter schools will exacerbate) is perhaps the biggest factor .The governor is trying to hold public education hostage by threatening to decrease funding if he doesn’t get his way. This is like a spoiled child who insists everyone must play by his rules or he will take his ball and go home.
It is important to evaluate the effectivess of teachers but when teachers have to play guessing games for one portion of the evaluation and some student assessments have NOTHING to do with the curriculum being taught..... It question the validity of the evaluation system. TIME FOR CHANGE!!
An accurate evaluation takes into account not just what the employee does but also how it affects the other members of his/her work team, the customer base, etc. So have teachers observed by education professionals and have them assemble student work portfolios to be judged by colleagues to ascertain their effectiveness.
The question is badly worded. Yes, evaluations can measure effectiveness IF THE EVALUATIONS ARE APPROPRIATE. The current APPR weights the students' scores on standardized tests too heavily, and Cuomo's proposed revision to the APPR would weight them even more heavily. Standardized tests are not accurate measurements of real learning, so using them as a measurement of teacher effectiveness is also not accurate. I don't know any teachers who think they should be exempt from observation or evaluation...they just want to be evaluated _fairly_.
Teachers are evaluated every year and thier evaluation should not be based on 1 state exam. Frank you are clearly misinformed! Teachers are evaluated like everyone else. In the business world when your employees don't perform, you fire them. As educators we are not in the business of firing students! We have to educate all students - even those who are at-risk and not performing on grade level.
So an evaluation that accounts for all factors of a teacher's performance would be most effective!
I bet we waste a lot of money on evaluations and expensive administrators and super superintendents.
Lets forego all that and instead use that money to hire 2 teachers per classroom for more student teacher interaction.
And get teachers into suitable 401k plans, not life long money sucking pensions.
Evaluations are fine. It's the method that is flawed. It's like rating how good a cop is by how many tickets he writes. Start teaching kids to thinks NOT how to think. Study after study has shown that increasing spending does nothing to produce better students, so stop worrying about securing funds. NOTHING is more effective then good parents who get involved with their child's education.
Evaluations are fine. It's the method that is flawed. It's like rating how good a cop is by how many tickets he writes. Start teaching kids to thinks NOT how to think. Study after study has shown that increasing spending does nothing to produce better students, so stop worrying about securing funds. NOTHING is more effective then good parents who get involved with their child's education.
Teachers are not opposed to an evaluation system. However, the goal of a teacher evaluation is to improve instruction. The governor's plan is punitive. It will not be implemented to improve public education but to destroy it because this is the agenda of his millionaire backers. The conversation should be about the effects of poverty on education and about funding equity for all public schools.
Teachers receive yearly evaluations based on observations conducted by administrators in their schools as well as their department heads in their districts. These snapshots into the classroom, along with other information gleaned from teachers, help to create observations that are much more pertinent than the current APPR.
Why wouldn't a teacher require at least an annual evaluation ( like EVERYBODY who WORKS for a living).?