PETITION ADVOCATING FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN TEACHER EVALUATIONS

How would you like 50% or more of your child's teacher's performance evaluation to depend on one test?

It is common sense that a teacher’s "rating" should be determined by reviewing the long-term progress of his or her students.

That will not happen if the current emergency measures in place are made permanent.

There is wide agreement that a comprehensive method to evaluate teachers' performance is necessary; for much of the past year, New York's teacher evaluation plan has been a central concern of parents and educators.

The Education Transformation Act of 2015 specifically directed the NYS Education Department to consult with experts in education, economics and psychometrics before formulating a plan for evaluation teachers.

Nonetheless, last June, the Board of Regents, the state's ultimate policy makers for education, approved a temporary 90-day teacher evaluation plan that placed more weight than ever before on standardized tests roughly 50% and in some cases, 100% -- despite protests from parents, school administrators, and statisticians.

This test-heavy plan threatens to continue to put pressure on teachers to spend more time on tested subjects like math and English, and less on the rest, like science, social studies, art, etc.  Teachers will be forced to "teach to the test".  That is not fair to the teachers or to our children.

On Wednesday, September 16, the Board of Regents begins the process of voting upon whether to make its temporary 90-day teacher evaluation plan permanent.

We ask that you consider the implications of the Board's vote, and then consider signing the petition below to ask the Regents to vote "no."

The June vote on the temporary plan was 11 yes to 6 no; we hope that with enough parent voices this plan will be defeated, and a better, research-based plan that doesn’t pose a threat to our children’s education will be created and adopted instead.

Please consider signing the petition at
irvptsa.org
to encourage the New York State Board of Regents to vote against raising the weight of standardized tests in teachers' evaluations to their highest levels ever.

THANK YOU!