Regents tackle teacher rating system

State Regents voted unanimously Monday to take the first step toward a controversial system to evaluate hundreds of thousands of teachers and principals based largely on student test scores.

The vote to publish draft regulations followed the report of a state advisory task force, which warned that poor implementation of the new evaluation system would "result in frustration, loss of faith and set the system up for failure."

Still, even task-force members had conceded privately that approval appeared a foregone conclusion. An agreement by state education officials and teacher-union leaders last year to push for the new evaluations was critical in winning nearly $700 million in federal "Race to the Top" money.

Albany education officials have predicted that using much of that money to redesign tests and course curricula so they meet national standards will help keep New York among leaders in school reform.

"We promised a system to enhance the quality of education across the state and today we begin to fulfill that promise," said Merryl H. Tisch of Manhattan, the Regents chancellor.

Many teachers have misgivings about the system. One question raised Monday was whether teacher ratings would be released publicly and, if so, what effect that would have on low-rated teachers.

"No parent is going to want their child in a teacher's class, if they're rated ineffective," said Roger Tilles of Great Neck, who represents Long Island on the Regents board.

Michael Mendel, a teachers' representative from New York City, went a step further, saying that any move toward making evaluations public could lead to parent demands that their children be assigned only to top-rated teachers.

"I would say that publishing is only going to create mistrust," said Mendel.

State education officials say the law does not specifically ban the release of teacher evaluations. But New York City's teacher union has gone to court in an attempt to block release of teacher-performance data. Tisch told a reporter Monday that the issue of publishing similar data produced in the future by the state would probably be decided by the courts, not the Regents.

Yesterday's vote authorizes the state Education Department over the next month to publish draft regulations that would put the new ratings system into effect. Final approval by the Regents could come as early as next month.

State union officials expect the new evaluations to ultimately affect about 250,000 teachers and other professional school workers statewide, including about 35,000 on Long Island. Once approved, the system would take effect in July.

Initially, evaluations would begin with about 52,000 teachers and other school workers statewide and 7,000 on the Island who work in grades 4-8.