Union sues to halt teacher evaluation rule

The state teachers union has filed suit against the Board of Regents and the state Education Department, seeking to block a regulation that allows school districts to double the weight of state test scores in recently adopted teacher evaluations.

The New York State United Teachers, in the rare legal action taken this week, wants to prevent the state from basing 40 percent of a teacher's evaluation on how students perform on standardized state tests. The union argues that the regulation violates state law and is inconsistent with the teacher evaluation statute adopted by the legislature in May 2010.

It is the first time in nearly 40 years the union has filed such a suit. Islip Teachers Association president Gary Fernando, a veteran teacher, is named as a plaintiff.

Union officials said in legal papers Tuesday the law requires that 20 percent of a teacher's rating be based on student evaluations and 20 percent based on "other locally selected measures of student achievement that are determined to be rigorous and comparable across classrooms and are developed locally through collective bargaining."

NYSUT president Richard Iannuzzi, a former Central Islip teacher, said the regulations will lead to more "teaching to the test" and that the Regents and Education Department "rushed into place badly flawed, contradictory regulations that will do nothing to strengthen student learning or the teaching profession."

State Supreme Court Justice Richard M. Platkin signed an order late Monday requiring the Board of Regents to show why the disputed regulations should not be suspended pending a final determination on whether they are illegal.

In May, a divided Board of Regents approved an evaluation package in which up to 40 percent of a teacher's rating could be based on students' improvement on state tests. The exact weight given test scores would be left to local school districts, but a minimum of 20 percent would be based on the state exams. Districts can opt to include the other 20 percent based on a locally developed test or use the state exams.

Teacher evaluations are scheduled to go into effect in the coming school year. The remaining 60 percent of teacher ratings would be determined by other criteria, such as principals' evaluations of the teacher's classroom work.

In a response, an Education Department spokesman said officials believe the courts will uphold expanded use of state test scores.

"In May, the Board of Regents adopted critical reforms that will allow schools for the first time to more accurately measure the performance of teachers and school leaders," department spokesman Jonathan Burman said in a written statement.