Educators push for changes to teacher evaluations

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10/WUTR/WFXV/WPNY)—The President of New York State United Teachers and the Commissioner of the New York State Education Department hand delivered an agreement on teacher evaluations to state Senator Shelley Mayer and Assemblyman Michael Benedetto on Wednesday.

“Our teachers welcome fair and honest evaluations. They love feedback on their performance and their practice,” explained Melinda Person, NYSUT’s president. “What this bill will do, is return the conversation about what teacher evaluation looks like, back to local control. It will remove the requirement that your evaluation be test based and that focus on high stakes tests will create some space for student curiosity and love of learning.”

According to Person, it will also allow principals to focus more on supporting the improvement of new teachers.

Assembly Education Chair, Michael Benedetto said this is not a budget conversation, but rather something that will likely be taken up afterwards.

“I hope to have this done within the next month or so,” Benedetto told reporters.

Commissioner Betty Rosa was asked if she knows where the governor stands on the issue.

“How she will respond after reading it, I don’t know,” replied Rosa. “I can’t predict, but if I had to guess, I’d guess that this is a positive and it’s something that I do believe she will stand behind.”