Poll: 50% back new teacher eval system

Half of New Yorkers believe a new system to evaluate public school teachers would improve educational quality, according to a poll released Monday.

The Siena Research Institute poll found that 50 percent of those surveyed said that the system would improve education, while 38 percent said it would have no effect, 3 percent said it would make things worse and 9 percent said they didn't know.

However, pollster Steve Greenberg said the positive response is tempered by a sizable minority who "feel that this alone won't have a positive impact on the quality of education."

"Clearly voters do not see the issue of teacher evaluations as being the 'be all and end all' to improving the quality of education for New York's public school students," he said in a news release.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has called the agreement hammered out last month with the teachers unions one of the most important accomplishments of his administration this year.

A majority of those polled also said they believe the system is fair to teachers: 57 percent compared with 30 percent who said it wasn't and 13 percent who didn't have an opinion.

The poll also found that Cuomo, despite calling himself the students' lobbyist, hasn't gotten much credit for improving education. Nearly half -- 45 percent -- said the governor's efforts have had no effect while 27 percent said he had made things worse, 22 percent said he had improved quality and 6 percent had no opinion.

On another issue, support for legalizing Las Vegas-style casino gambling has eroded slightly over the past two months while opposition has increased. The survey found that 49 percent opposed a constitutional amendment that would allow non-Indian casino gaming while 48 percent were in favor and 3 percent had no opinion. In January, a majority -- 53 percent -- favored the amendment compared with 42 percent opposed.

The poll surveyed 808 registered voters from Feb. 26-29 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.