Just got this from our Superintendant (APPR Related)

REGENTS ADOPT RULES FOR EVALUATING
TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL EFFECTIVENESS

The New York State Board of Regents today adopted regulations that will
implement a statewide teacher and principal performance evaluation
system that includes multiple measures of educator effectiveness. The
regulations, which will take effect during the 2011-2012 school year,
are required by legislation enacted last year. The new law establishes a
comprehensive evaluation system for all classroom teachers and building
principals in New York. These evaluations will play a significant role
in a wide array of employment decisions, including promotion, retention,
tenure determinations, termination, and supplemental compensation, and
will be a significant factor in teacher and principal professional
development.

Regents Chancellor Merryl H. Tisch said, “With the help of our
partners in the field, we have taken a critical step today in developing
a fair and equitable system for evaluating the performance of New
York’s teachers and principals - a system that will enhance the
quality of education across the State.”

State Education Commissioner David M. Steiner said, “This new
evaluation system will help educators improve their craft by focusing
professional development and coaching on their specific needs and
recognizing outstanding teaching. It will help ensure that we have an
effective teacher in every classroom and an effective leader in every
school.”

Senior Deputy Commissioner John B. King said, “As we shift to the
work of implementation, our focus remains leveraging evaluations to
drive improved teaching and learning.”

Under the new system, each teacher and principal will receive an annual
professional performance review (APPR) resulting in a single composite
effectiveness score and a rating of "highly effective," "effective,"
"developing," or "ineffective." The composite score will be determined
as follows:

? 20% -- student growth on state assessments or a comparable
measure of student achievement growth (increases to 25% upon
implementation of a value-added growth model);
? 20% -- locally-selected measures of student achievement that are
determined to be rigorous and comparable across classrooms (decreases to
15% upon implementation of a value-added growth model); and
? 60% -- other measures of teacher/principal effectiveness.

If a teacher or principal is rated "developing" or "ineffective," the
school district or BOCES is required to develop and implement a teacher
or principal improvement plan. Tenured teachers and principals with a
pattern of ineffective teaching or performance, defined as two
consecutive annual "ineffective" ratings, may be charged with
incompetence and considered for termination through an expedited hearing
process. The law further provides that all evaluators must be
appropriately trained and that appeals procedures are to be locally
established.

The evaluation system’s three components are designed to complement
one another:
? Statewide student growth measures will identify those educators
whose students’ progress exceeds that of similar students, as well as
those whose students are falling behind compared to similar students.
? Locally selected measures of student achievement will reflect
local priorities, needs, and targets.
? Teacher observations, survey tools, and other measures will
provide educators with detailed, structured feedback on their
professional practice.


Taken together, this information will be used to tailor professional
development and support for educators to develop and improve their
instructional practices, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that there
is an effective teacher in every classroom and an effective leader in
every school.

The regulations adopted today reflect many of the recommendations of
the Regents Task Force on Teacher and Principal Effectiveness as well as
input received from numerous stakeholders, including conversations with
Governor Cuomo, during the development of the regulations. In April, the
Task Force submitted to the Board of Regents a comprehensive report
containing recommendations for implementing New York’s performance
evaluation system. The sixty-three member Task Force - composed of
teachers, principals, superintendents of schools, school board
representatives, school district and BOCES officials, and other
interested parties - has been meeting regularly since September 2010.
The Board of Regents discussed various topics related to the evaluation
system at their meetings in January, February and March 2011, and they
discussed and reviewed the Task Force recommendations at their April
meeting. At the April 2011 Regents meeting, the Task Force presented
their recommendations to the Board. Thereafter, the Department presented
their recommendations, which incorporated most of the Task Force’s
recommendations. The Regents then directed Department staff to prepare
draft regulations consistent with the day’s discussions. The
Department posted those draft regulations online, seeking and receiving
extensive public comment from both Task Force members and the field.


As a result of the input received from stakeholders, the Department
made several key improvements to the regulations:
? The language was revised to eliminate the limitation in the
draft regulations on the use of the same measure of student growth on
state assessments for both the state assessment subcomponent and the
locally selected measures subcomponent. Allowing the optional use of
measures based on state tests for both growth and locally-selected
measures provides flexibility to districts.
? With regard to the 60% of teacher effectiveness that is based on
“other measures”: The language in the draft regulations was revised
to assign at least 40 of the 60 points to classroom observations and to
require multiple observations.
? With regard to the 60% of principal effectiveness that is based
on “other measures”: The language in the draft regulations was
revised to require that at least 40 of the 60 points be based on a broad
assessment of the principal’s leadership and management actions by the
building principal’s supervisor or a trained independent evaluator.
The draft language was further revised to require that any remaining
points be based on the results of one or more ambitious and measurable
goals set collaboratively with principals and their superintendents (or
their designee).
? With respect to scoring ranges: the language in the draft
regulations was revised to adjust the scoring ranges so that teachers
and principals must earn better than “ineffective” ratings on at
least one of the two student growth/achievement subcomponents as well as
the “other 60%” measure in order to earn an overall rating higher
than “ineffective.” In addition, if both student achievement
subcomponents are “ineffective,” the overall rating will be
“ineffective.”

The Regents and the Department will immediately begin a series of steps
to ensure the successful implementation of the regulations.

? The Department will issue two Requests for Qualifications (RFQs)
seeking teacher and principal evaluation rubrics and third party student
assessments that meet state criteria and will release later this summer
the resulting lists of state-approved tools for districts to choose
from.
? The Department will also seek, through competitive bidding, an
expert provider to construct statistical measures of student growth
attributed to each educator to be used as one component of evaluation.
? In addition, the Department invited labor and management
representatives from around the state to participate in a conference
about collaboration toward implementing the new evaluation regulations
hosted at Cornell University’s Industrial Labor Relations school in
June. The conference is sponsored by the school management and labor
associations in the state.


Implementation Timeline

? 2011-2012 School Year - New performance evaluation system takes
effect for classroom teachers of common branch subjects, ELA or math in
grades 4 through 8 along with their respective building principals. The
Department recommends that, to the extent possible, districts and BOCES
begin the process of rolling this system out for the evaluation of all
classroom teachers and building principals in the 2011-2012 school
year.
? 2012-2013 School Year - New performance evaluation system goes
into effect for all teachers and building principals.
? 2012-2013 School Year and thereafter - Implementation of teacher
and principal improvement plans, as appropriate; implementation of a
Regents-approved value-added growth model to be used for the teacher and
principal performance evaluation system.

A copy of the regulations is available at the following web address:
http://www.regents.nysed.gov/meetings/2011Meetings/May2011/511bra4.pdf

The regulation was adopted as an emergency measure and will be
published in the State Register for public comment on June 8th. Public
comment will be received for 45 days after publication.




Thoughts?

ets - where the "?" are there were bullet points in the original text. They didn't copy over nicely.....

Message edited 5/17/2011 10:25:40 AM.

Re: Just got this from our Superintendant (APPR Related)

I see nothing that addresses grades K-3 teachers, or cluster teachers (Gym, Music, Art, etc). Nor do I see anything mention of Special Educations students' individualized goals or beginning ELL students special needs. So I don't understand how this is a fair plan. I am curious to see how it all pans out.

Re: Just got this from our Superintendant (APPR Related)

Well, this is the final nail in my teaching coffin. I was 99% sure I'd be leaving after 2011-2012, but now I am 100% certain.

My kids do really well on their tests some years. And some years they bomb the tests, despite my best efforts.

No need to go off on my usual diatribe. But this is unfair. There was a NY Times article that said that it would be nearly impossible to keep a teacher who had poor scores, even if the other 60% of the rating was fine.

I can't live like that, worrying every year if my kids will do well enough on the test so I can keep paying my mortgage.

Re: Just got this from our Superintendant (APPR Related)

Merit Pay was just voted into the Florida schools beginning 2014-2015 school year. Luckily, I, along with every current employee, will have a choice to go with Merit Pay or be grandfathered in to our current "regular" pay situation. They will try and entice people to switch to merit pay with a higher salary. Ummm...I'll stick with a lower salary and not be afraid to lose my job because of the kids' horrendous test scores every year.

This state is going to the dogs.

Re: Just got this from our Superintendant (APPR Related)

This is freaking awesome

Re: Just got this from our Superintendant (APPR Related)

Wow.

I'm sure I won't have to worry about it as the Language program in NY state is going down the drain anyway.

Re: Just got this from our Superintendant (APPR Related)

Posted by KMCGK

Wow.

I'm sure I won't have to worry about it as the Language program in NY state is going down the drain anyway.

Re: Just got this from our Superintendant (APPR Related)

I really don't see how this can be equal and fair to all teachers across the board??? This is just another way to treat education like a business.

Re: Just got this from our Superintendant (APPR Related)

I wish it was more specific. How does it evaluate teachers who do not teach Regents classes? Also - what about schools that heavily track? Obviously, the honors teacher will have better results than the teacher who teaches consultant (special ed) classes.

Re: Just got this from our Superintendant (APPR Related)

Message edited 5/17/2011 8:20:47 PM.

Re: Just got this from our Superintendant (APPR Related)

Posted by juanvi

Posted by KMCGK

Wow.

I'm sure I won't have to worry about it as the Language program in NY state is going down the drain anyway.

Seriously! WT HECK are the doing? Is this what is going to help the kids be ready for life? Eliminating FL Regents exams? That's another topic I guess. I'm SICK! About everything!

Re: Just got this from our Superintendant (APPR Related)

Posted by scarletbegonia

Posted by juanvi

Posted by KMCGK

Wow.

I'm sure I won't have to worry about it as the Language program in NY state is going down the drain anyway.

Seriously! WT HECK are the doing? Is this what is going to help the kids be ready for life? Eliminating FL Regents exams? That's another topic I guess. I'm SICK! About everything!

It was like a double whammy today when I heard about this AND the elimination of the FL exams. We knew that the Proficiency was axed this year, but to eliminate the Regents as well?

I am a MS FL teacher and for the first time in 10 years, I'm fearful for my job.