Monday, March 12, 2018

DRAFT OF TEACHER EVALUATION LAW REPEAL PETITION

Now that the second trimester at Middle College High School has ended and I actually have some time, I wrote a draft of a petition to repeal the NYS teacher evaluation laws. I want to use Move On but I admit I am brand new at this petition thing.

It is rather unusual to draft something online on a blog but since the readers at this blog inspired this draft, I leave it up to you to edit and hopefully we will get a consensus. While anonymous comments are welcome as usual, any serious editing should be done on email. Email at ICEUFT@mail.com so we can work on this.

It's time to come forward and say who you are since we will all need to sign the finalized version. The recent West Virginia strike proved that from the ground up teachers can improve their lives but we have to stop hiding and come out in the open.We can't expect Michael Mulgrew or Randi Weingarten to help us; we must do it ourselves.

I want to send this to President Mulgrew, Governor Cuomo and the Legislature.

Draft petition to repeal NYS Teacher Evaluation Laws 3012-c and 3012-d

We must return teacher evaluation to local districts free from state mandates by repealing New York State Education Laws 3012-c and. 3012-d.

  • Evaluating teachers based on student results on tests and other student assessments that were never designed to rate educators is neither a scientifically or educationally sound way to be used for a Measure of Student Learning portion of a teacher's rating.


  • The Measure of Teacher Practice portion of teacher evaluations is subjective and highly unfair, particularly in NYC where the Danielson Framework has been used not to help teachers grow as professionals but as a weapon to frighten teachers into teaching to score points on arbitrary rubrics in multiple unnecessary classroom observations.

Why we are starting this petition?

The teacher evaluation system in NYS is broken beyond repair. NYS passed a flawed evaluation system into law in order to receive federal Race to the Top funds. However, the current version of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act no longer requires states to rate teachers in part based on student test results to receive federal funds.  Rating teachers on student exam scores is not recommended by the American Statistical Association as it is not a reliable way to measure teacher performance yet in New York we only have a moratorium on using standardized tests to rate certain teachers. Teachers are still rated on tests and other assessments that were never designed to rate teachers. The Measures of Student Learning portion of teacher ratings is highly unreliable. Many call it "junk science."

The Measure of Teacher Practice portion of teacher ratings in New York City is based on the Danielson Framework whose creator, Charlotte Danielson, said this about teacher evaluation in Education Week:

There is ...little consensus on how the profession should define "good teaching." Many state systems require districts to evaluate teachers on the learning gains of their students. These policies have been implemented despite the objections from many in the measurement community regarding the limitations of available tests and the challenge of accurately attributing student learning to individual teachers.
Even when personnel policies define good teaching as the teaching practices that promote student learning and are validated by independent research, few jurisdictions require their evaluators to actually demonstrate skill in making accurate judgments. But since evaluators must assign a score, teaching is distilled to numbers, ratings, and rankings, conveying a reductive nature to educators' professional worth and undermining their overall confidence in the system.
I'm deeply troubled by the transformation of teaching from a complex profession requiring nuanced judgment to the performance of certain behaviors that can be ticked off on a checklist. In fact, I (and many others in the academic and policy communities) believe it's time for a major rethinking of how we structure teacher evaluation to ensure that teachers, as professionals, can benefit from numerous opportunities to continually refine their craft.
Teachers in NY are frustrated and demoralised by a teacher evaluation system that has robbed us of our professionalism.

Teachers have no confidence in the evaluation system that reduces teacher worth into a meaningless series of numbers and letters. Teachers in NYC fear classroom observations are not being used to help them grow professionally, but instead teachers must teach to try to score points on Ms. Danielson's often misused framework.

In NYC, there is a climate of fear in the classroom which does not lead to improved teacher practice. Four observations per year for veteran teachers is excessive. One per year or every other year is sufficient for the vast majority of  veteran teachers. Ms.Danielson stated in Education Week that after three years in the classroom, teachers become part of  a "professional community" and should be treated as such.

Danielson says:
Personnel policies for the teachers not practicing below standard—approximately 94 percent of them—would have, at their core, a focus on professional development, replacing the emphasis on ratings with one on learning.

We agree. To get there we must first repeal Education Law 3012-c and 3012-d and return teacher evaluation to local districts, free from state mandates.




29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome! Great work!

Anonymous said...

Maybe you can add something about all the art, music, gym, and "other" non core subjects that are rated on tests that have nothing to do with what they teach. I have been subject to this crap since 2007 when my school served as a pilot for Danielson etc,
Her rubric doesn't work in my music classroom and giving me a MOSL score based on how well my kids do on the ELA or history regents is ABSURD!!! Why does no one ever address this??? Please add it, Thanks.

Anonymous said...

James, we are so fortunate to have you with us. You are fantastic. Thank you

Anonymous said...

As a non classroom teacher I actually think teachers should be able to keep the choice to use test scores to rate me. If a non classroom teacher gets s developing on observations but an effective on test scores, she or he is deemed effective overall. I would like to keep this aspect of the evaluation as a choice but it should not be forced on anyone.

Anonymous said...

James, I already know the answer but I am just verifying. Under Danielson, a formal observation takes place at a mutually agreed upon time- not assigned by the immediate supervisor. Am I correct? My AP is assigning classes, dates, and periods, and some of the fools I work with are going along with this. Did I miss a memo somewhere?

Anonymous said...

How can we get this petition to chapter leaders throughout NYC? We gotta spread the word on this.

Anonymous said...

This doesn’t sound UFT approved. However, if it works you can be sure the UFT will take credit for it. Your dues are always at work for you.

James Eterno said...

I believe you are correct 4:56. Our problem sometimes is UFT agrees with management's anti-teacher interpretation of contract and rules.

Anonymous said...

This petition does not have to be approved to share it with chapter leaders. We can send it ourselves to our own chapter leaders at our individual schools. MORE probably also has an email list of chapter leaders who are members of the MORE caucus and the petition should be shared with them as well. The UFT will most likely not want to get involved in this petition.

James Eterno said...

Plenty of anonymous comments but no emails. No problem but are folks going to sign and spread this online?

We need numbers to make a difference

Anonymous said...

Where is the link to the petition?

James Eterno said...

Waiting to any edits. If not, I will get it going.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for your time and effort! Nice work!
Wondering...Don't we want Mulgrew to hear us? He is the one ignoring our pleas and trying to push his Danielson evaluation rubric as a model for the state to consider using. Our local districts might very well decide to continue with this junk science, misguided Teacher Evaluation model.

James Eterno said...

We will send to Mulgrew. The idea for a petition came out of your comments on this blog. Readers encouraged me to do this.

Anonymous said...

Yep. We should try posting it to the UFT Facebook page. If they keep it up, they support it, if they don't they are showing their contempt for teachers and will further cause tons more teachers to stop paying dues post Janus.

Anonymous said...

Love it! Thank you!! I hope that in addition to circulating hard copies that we can use change.org or some other online platform. add the link, I can't wait to sign it!!!

Anonymous said...

Should add in that the burden of proof for any and all teachers rated ineffective or developing in a 3020A falls on the DOE. Innocent until proven guilty. Not guilty until you prove otherwise. This must be for all accused not just a percentage of those.

Anonymous said...

Eliminate The Danielson Rubric

James Eterno said...

Innocent until proven guilty and s and u would return immediately if we repeal the evaluation laws.

Anonymous said...

BRING IT! No need to edit it. It is perfect as is. The word needs to get out. Post up an official link so we can all get this spread. Every day we waste is just another day where the NYS legislature and the UFT can sit on their ass and not think about this. The groundswell is ready to get the word out,

James Eterno said...

Based on the responses, I will work on posting it as soon as I can. You have been patient with me while I wrote the draft and then received feedback. The next step is to get this out on the internet.I hope everyone signs.

Anonymous said...

That will make sense so our Union will oppose it.

Anonymous said...

Mulgrew is going to laugh about it.

Anonymous said...

He won't laugh if teachers sign it.

Anonymous said...

James, I will email you over the weekend when I will have some time to give it the serious thought it deserves. Thank you for starting this. Roseanne McCosh

Anonymous said...

Teacher's will sign it.

Anonymous said...

Three drive by's in two days, 10 mins. each, day one half day for D75 students.
Teacher's will sign.

Anonymous said...

Informals have to be at least 20 mins in duration. If it gets written up poorly you must fight it. This is just another example of why we need to eliminate Danielson and have only 2 observations for tenured teachers. (one formal ANNOUNCED observation and one unannounced INFORMAL observation) This is the current minimum amount of observations as per NYS law. The vast majority of tenured teachers throughout our state stick to the minimum. It is not asking much for the DOE to go the same for tenured teachers. I have no problem with non tenured teachers having slightly more observations as they may need them and many districts require non tenured teachers to have more than the minimum 2. I really hope the UFT is going to get this done, I know that I am on the fence about paying dues after Janus unless our evaluation system changes. It is high time the UFT steps to the plate on this.

Lori Matta said...

Unannounced is what is so stressful though.
A principal could still choose to wait as long as possible and choose the worst possible time to visit your class.
The same stress and fear is still there.
We need to go back to one formal.