Wednesday, June 09, 2021

STATE LEGISLATURE PASSES AND CUOMO SIGNS BILL TO WAIVE TEACHER EVALUATION FOR 2020-2021 SCHOOL YEAR

The State Legislature has passed a bill to waive teacher evaluation for this school year (a little late don't you think?). We have updated information this morning that Governor Cuomo has signed it. 

This came from NY BAT's June 7 on Twitter. 


NY BATs

@NYBATs

Jun 7

PANDEMIC EVALUATIONS? Bill passed by NYS Assembly + Senate to waive controversial APPR teacher evaluation system for this school year has just been delivered to  @NYGovCuomo to sign or veto within 10 days https://nysenate.gov//legislation/bills/2021/S5576

NY BATs

@NYBATs

Jun 7

Had this bill been signed into law in April it could have saved principals across the state the time/difficulty of conducting remote observations for which there are no standards or guidance.


The bill's language that I think you mostly want to see:

§ 3. Section 3012-d of the education law is amended by  adding  a  new subdivision 17 to read as follows:

 17.  NOTWITHSTANDING  ANY OTHER PROVISION OF THIS SECTION, FOR THE TWO THOUSAND TWENTY--TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-ONE SCHOOL YEAR, NO SCHOOL DISTRICT OR BOARD OF COOPERATIVE EDUCATIONAL SERVICES SHALL  COMPLETE  AN  ANNUAL TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL EVALUATION REQUIRED BY THIS SECTION FOR ANY CLASSROOM TEACHER OR BUILDING PRINCIPAL AND STATE FUNDING SHALL NOT BE WITHHELD FROM ANY SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR NOT COMPLYING WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF THIS SECTION.

62 comments:

Anonymous said...

With the wrong leadership, the Union is a shipwreck. Accept the loss and and don't try to search for buried treasure. You might drown. Align your moral compass with reality.

Mulgrew discusses teacher evaluation law with De Blasio.

https://tenor.com/view/tweedle-dee-an-tweedle-dumb-alice-in-wonderland-gif-11765201

Anonymous said...

Yes, Gov. Cuomo signed it:

www.nysenate.gov//legislation/bills/2021/S5576

Anonymous said...

Come on Cuomo, stick it DeBozo!!!!!!
Would be a perfect F/U.

Anonymous said...

We do have confirmation. Go to the bill.. It says he signed yesterday. They started the process on March.... Took this long to go thru.


https://www.nysenate.gov//legislation/bills/2021/S5576

Anonymous said...

For once I actually WANT my observation in my file. I filmed an outstanding lesson that my principal has not evaluated yet. Now that observations will be waived, this awesome observation will not count. We should have the OPTION of having it in our file. Oh yeah, how I am supposed to know if I am teaching well if my observation does not get written up?

Anonymous said...

https://www.nysenate.gov//legislation/bills/2021/S5576


Signed!

Pete Zucker said...

Great. And the point of being wrung through the crap of being observed was for...???

David Suker said...

Ahh it’s nice to have only a couple of years left!

Anonymous said...

So can someone clear this up? Is there no APPR rating this year? Thank you - People need to know, just want to be clear.

Anonymous said...

No standards? No guidance? The UFT agreed with the DOE to use the same Danielson standards used when teaching in person, even though there are remote Danielson Guidelines!! I believe the guidance went like this. Hey principals! Go use Danielson to trim your budgets!!! What a joke. I feel like this has been glazed over. Our lovely UFT AGREED to rate remote teachers with in person Danielson Guidelines! That happened.

Anonymous said...

Cuomo waived it yesterday. Will need to wait for doe to make an announcement.

Anonymous said...

The next waiver Cuomo signs—should be the one where we can finally wave goodbye to him

Anonymous said...

"There is opportunity in chaos"

Anonymous said...

I think this means you are not getting a rating, but your observation reports will still go in your file. So for the teacher who got the outstanding review, it should still go in your file. Also you can keep a hard copy and put it in your own portfolio.

Anonymous said...

hopefully this will hold Dwarka accountable for her actions this year.
Not only having worst evaluations in Queens high schools but worst evaluations during a covid pandemic!!!!

Teachers are still having evaluations this week at Bryant HS.

Why are Superintendent's not SUPERVISING DWARKA!!!!

DOE EXPLAIN THE DATA=WORST EVALUATIONS YEAR AFTER YEAR!!!!

HIGHEST STAFF TURNEVER YEAR AFTER YEAR!!!!
WORST EVALUATIONS DURING COVID!!!!

Anonymous said...

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh so there are no Ineffective or Developing teachers this year. Got it.

Anonymous said...

Now if they'll finally bring the Health Act to a vote. Something the UFT should get behind buuuut, yeah.

Anonymous said...

Allow me to enlighten you.

Danielson was not designed for high stakes job performance evaluations.
Danielson was not designed with online instruction in mind.
The DOE uses it to bully. The organizational culture of the DOE is highly toxic.

It is as though the Danielson Rubric was accidentally released from a research lab
for managerial enforcement weapons. IT is not zoonotic in origin.

It is used in by the DOE as a cudgel to enforce teacher obedience.
Yes, it is a weapon and by all appearances it is a very successful weapon for the
repression of independent thought by public school educators.

You would have a good legal theory against the Danielson rubric abuse if you were to sue the DOE, Their attitude is "go sue us, we have more lawyers up are asses and more time than you will ever have'.

Good luck if you did not figure this out on your own.

and yes, here they are again.

https://tenor.com/view/tweedle-dee-an-tweedle-dumb-alice-in-wonderland-gif-11765201


Anonymous said...

James...

OK, Cuomo signed it, but doesnt debozo et al have to ok it....like our buyout?

Anonymous said...

Actually, no!

Look at page 2, lines 16 to 22:

https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/bills/2021/S5576A

nerd said...

When will this officially be official?

Anonymous said...

. NOTWITHSTANDING ANY OTHER PROVISION OF THIS SECTION, FOR THE TWO
THOUSAND TWENTY--TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-ONE SCHOOL YEAR, NO SCHOOL DISTRICT
OR BOARD OF COOPERATIVE EDUCATIONAL SERVICES SHALL COMPLETE AN ANNUAL
PROFESSIONAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW REQUIRED BY THIS SECTION FOR ANY CLASS-
ROOM TEACHER OR BUILDING PRINCIPAL AND STATE FUNDING SHALL NOT BE WITH-
HELD FROM ANY SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR NOT COMPLETING THE ANNUAL PROFESSIONAL
PERFORMANCE REVIEW.

Anonymous said...

Hey, my observation has been up in Advance for 2 months. Just found out beginning of June when I went in to poke around. We are not being informed about ratings or opportunity to clear up/ clarify misconceptions.
Check Advance everyone!

Anonymous said...

Off topic but important question as many might be faced with this in the next 1-3 years with many openings coming up. Would you leave the DOE to accept a position on LI or upstate? You would have a shorter commute and higher pay but no tenure, must start over. Would you leave or stay? What if you were in a good DOE school?

Joe said...

Joe here,

Glad to see, based upon the last threads, not much has changed since I left. No surprise.

Quinn Zannoni said...

Does this not prohibit fourth year teachers from gaining tenure? With no rating this year or last, they cannot possibly meet the requirements of NY State law which state:

"A teacher seeking tenure would need to attain an effective or highly effective rating for at least three of the four years."

https://www.nysut.org/resources/all-listing/2015/august/fact-sheet-15-15-changes-to-tenure-and-the-tenured-teacher-removal-process

James Eterno said...

Quinn, Read the new law. Two no ratings and you are still good as I read it as long as one of the first two were effective or highly effective.

TeachNY said...

Good. I’m hearing that people were STILL rated poorly this year. Now to fight the next big thing coming down. The pike-mandatory vaccines. Should be a choice until long term effects (5-10 years) have been looked T. We shall see what happens on this one.

Anonymous said...

One full year later and we still have not received payment for working Spring Break 2020.

Anonymous said...

Was there a mistake in this thread. Does it mean 2020-2021 meaning this school year or 2021-2022 next school year.

TJL said...

4:40 There are so many variables, it depends. I wouldn't but only because the commuting would be too inconvenient for me to go to LI or the northern suburbs.

Anonymous said...

I think the state was worried if they announced this earlier that teachers would just show movies in March etc. This exact thing occurred last year too.

Anonymous said...

The bill was signed into law this week. For this current school year, along with last year, no district is allowed to give teachers/principals a rating.

Anonymous said...

Dwarka must be saying, "Curses, foiled again."

nerd said...

Why has no major news source has published an article on this yet? (AT least not in my searches)

Anonymous said...

@nerd: good question. Waiting on DeBlasio to sign?

Unknown said...

Yes, what a pity. At Bryant HS the admin. is left with a rubric at hand and no teachers to hurt. I wonder during those countless hours paid by taxpayer money, they took to detail our developing ratings, observe us and write us up again and again, how many students they could have helped complete their courses if they were actually teaching.

Unknown said...

Yes, it is kind of funny, how they are left holding their rubric unable to hurt teachers.

Unknown said...

Yes, it is kind of funny, how they are left holding their rubric unable to hurt teachers. c

Anonymous said...

unfortunately the have hurt many teaches especially the new untenured wondering "what am I doing wrong as a new teacher" with bad evaluation after bad evaluation. With not 1 "highly effective" teacher in almost every department to look up to as a mentor or for guidance.

Bryant will continue to have the highest teacher turnover and lowest teacher ratings year after year for no good cause.

Does Bryant really only have 3 highly effective teachers in the whole building?
What pathetic administrators are doing?
Are assistant principals even held accountable for that?
Where is the CSA for making administrators complete forceful evaluations during the last week of school?

Anonymous said...

James, DO you know anything about why ATRs weren't allowed to do school surveys this year?

Anonymous said...

Has any other ATR been told by administration that they were ineligible to fill out surveys? I thought were we the same as appointed teachers. This is the first year I was unable to fill one out. Does the DOE not want ATRs to fill them out since they know they will give the doe law marks on the doe and chancellor sections?

nerd said...

I think any teacher who physically reported to work in person this year should have automatically been rated "highly effective" with a "wink, wink" and a "thank you for keeping us open."

Unknown said...

Is this for untenured teachers only ? Or does this mean tenured teachers are exempt as well

James Eterno said...

Everyone 8s exempt.

Unknown said...

So this is official? Lol, pardon the questioning. Sometimes it's hard to believe things this year🤣🤣

nerd said...

Is this the confirmation?


https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/changes-to-new-york-appr-and-tenure-2766623/

James Eterno said...

I copied the actual language from an official state government site. What more do you need?

nerd said...

The one I found discusses non-tenures who I'm sure follow this blog too.

James Eterno said...

Nerd, The link is to the whole bill.

Anonymous said...

Don't worry. The doe is waiting until next week after principals and superintendents finish all their observations and reports to them say, ratings are waived for the year per state ed department.... There is no way in hell they wanted to let people do less work this week. Good forbid schools actually use the time to focus on the real work that needs to be done.

Unknown said...

Has correspondence been given to major news outlets? Right now there doesn't seem.to be too much information out there. The union hasn't reached out to teachers. I did read all of the buzz on the internet.

Also, did I read the wording of the law correctly? Will it be up to individual cities to decide or is this all encompassing?

Unknown said...

Yes this is my question. Because Google doesn't turn up a lot, so I find this hard to accept without hesitancy

Anonymous said...

Just wondering when DOE will make it official. A colleague told me that it is left up to the cities to decide. Are they misinformed? Can DeBlasio overrule this? Pardon the questions, not well versed in all this

Anonymous said...

Correct. Local district decision. Stay tuned.

Unknown said...

Lol if it's a local district decision, then I'd say we have ratings this year in the city🤣

James Eterno said...

How do you read it that the ratings are optional?

Anonymous said...

When will the DOE be making an official statement? The statement was made by thus time last year.

Anonymous said...

Are we sure the bill doesn't focus solely on tenure?

James Eterno said...

I printed the actual language of the law on evaluations being waived right in this posting. What else do you need to see?

Anonymous said...

Any word yet on when it will be announced by DOE? Because the day this came out people were being observed and stuff entered in advance.

Unknown said...

When is the last day for observarions to be entered into advance that were previously done? Bit off topic.