PT Council Urges Regents to Turn Down New Teacher Evaluation Plan

Dear Community: Last June, the NYS Board of Regents approved a temporary 90-day teacher evaluation plan that placed more weight than ever before on standardized tests. Under this plan test scores can comprise roughly 50% and in some cases 100% of a teacher's overall evaluation score. This test-heavy plan could unduly stress children, and encourage teachers to spend more time on tested subjects like Math and English, and less on the rest, like Science, Social Studies, Art, etc. Teachers could feel obliged to "teach to the test" because their jobs are dependent on it. The plan appears to have no basis in research or studies.

Dr. Hagerman, the Scarsdale Board of Education,and the PT Council, in partnership with the Scarsdale Teachers Association, and joining thousands of education stakeholders across New York State all made statements opposing the passage of this 'APPR' legislation. Opponents have been working hard to slow down implementation and there is still another chance to make a difference.

The plan is now up for a vote to make it permanent, and we can ask the Regents to vote "no" at their Sept 16-17 meeting. The June vote on the temporary plan was 11 yes to 6 no. We are hopeful that with enough outcry, this plan will be defeated, and a better, research-based plan can be created and adopted instead.

A sample text and all the Regents' email addresses are posted on our website -- please consider this action today!

Lisa Eisenstein and Diane Greenwald
Co-chairs, PTC Legislation Committee