Education chief willing to meet principals
Right to left: Ms Sharon Fougner, principal, E.M. Baker Elementary; Dr. LaQuita Outlaw, principal, Bay Shore Middle School; Dr. Carol Burris Principal, South Side High School; Dr. Sean Feeney, principal The Wheatley School; and Andrew Greene, principal, Candlewood Middle School. (Nov. 2, 2011) Credit: J. Conrad Williams Jr.
State Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. said Thursday he would be glad to meet with the Long Island principals who drafted a missive challenging the state's controversial new teacher evaluation system.
The system was crucial to the state securing $700 million in federal Race to the Top money, King said this week. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education said Thursday that any significant changes in New York's overall plan would put that funding "in jeopardy."
New York's teacher evaluation system, called the Annual Professional Performance Review, or APPR, ties teacher ratings to student test scores, among other measures. Portions of the plan are being challenged in the courts.
Critics, including hundreds of principals from Nassau and Suffolk counties, said the evaluation system should have been tried first in a pilot program, and they expressed their concerns Wednesday in a letter that was posted online and sent to King and the state Board of Regents. By Thursday, nearly 400 of about 660 elementary, middle and high school principals on the Island had signed the letter.
The commissioner said Wednesday that he is aware of their concerns.
But the evaluation system already is a reality. Hofstra University held a symposium Friday to help administrators and union leaders learn about it.
"The law requires that the evaluation system be put into place this year," state Education Department spokesman Tom Dunn said. "Right now, we are asking schools to implement all aspects of APPR with the exception of those the court has overturned."
Dunn said the program is being rolled out slowly in that it will only affect fourth- through eighth-grade English and math teachers this school year.
He said it also is crucial to help the state secure a waiver from standards established in the federal No Child Left Behind initiative.
Sean Feeney, president of the Nassau County High School Principals' Association and principal of The Wheatley School in Old Westbury, drafted the open letter along with Carol Burris, principal of South Side High School in Rockville Centre.
