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Prior to 2010, the simplistic teacher evaluation system in New York CIty did a disservice to us as professionals, since we did not have the supports to develop in the absence of meaningful feedback, and to our students, who deserve the best teachers possible. Within this limited rating system, great teachers went unrecognized, ineffective teachers were largely ignored, and everyone else was left without specific information about how to improve. In 2010, New York passed a law to overhaul the teacher evaluation system before 2013 and this paper outlines our recommendations for implementation.
We recommend that New York adopt a teacher evaluation system with the following breakdowns:
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25% for student value-added growth data
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15% for other locally selected measures of student achievement
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30% for administrator observations
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15% for independent outside observations
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10% for student surveys
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5% for support of the school community
- With up to 5% demerits for lack of professionalism and/or poor attendance
About the Teacher Action Team
We are a team of 14 current and former teachers who met for five months to research pilot programs, successful district models and state laws across the country to determine what should and should not be included in a great teacher evaluation system. We looked at a variety of approaches and discussed how these policies would translate into practice in our own classrooms.