Editorial: Teacher evaluations will factor in NYC mayoral race
Classrooms across Long Island were empty on Thursday. Check our listings of delayed openings, closures and cancellations to see what's in store for Friday. Credit: Daniel Brennan
The long-awaited New York City teacher evaluation plan made public this past weekend contains heartening news for 1.1 million schoolkids and their parents.
For the first time, the city could wind up with an evaluation procedure that holds its 75,000 public school teachers to high standards while permitting administrators to fire — with far more swiftness — those who fail to measure up. But there’s a catch.
The plan that State Education Commissioner John King is imposing will stay in effect through the 2016-17 school year — unless the city and United Federation of Teachers negotiate a new deal in line with the state teacher evaluation law that all of the state’s other districts, including those on Long Island, adopted in the past year.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s staff says any plan revised after Bloomberg leaves office on Dec. 31 would need King’s sign-off, and they trust King to uphold key principles of the plan. And even if the UFT and a union-friendlier mayor agree on a reworked evaluation process, the state-imposed plan would remain in force until a new one is put into place.
On this issue though, it’s never over when it’s over.
The UFT packs a tremendous political wallop and it has never liked the notion of stringent teacher evaluations, a timely dismissal procedure or standardized curriculum. That’s one reason why Bloomberg and the UFT missed a state-imposed deadline in January to reach a deal on evaluations and forfeited $250 million in state aid.
But it’s hard to see what the UFT got out of this last round. It lost on all of those points — and now even faces a mandate to base 5 percent of a teacher’s rating on student surveys in grades three through 12.
Another chapter would surprise no one.
Yet the plan could be transformative if it survives. This has been a long fight but City Hall and Albany have served city parents well. It will fall to the next mayor to continue that record of progress.
