Schooltastic

Yesterday (as I write this), the governor and NYSUT (my union) agreed on terms for teacher evaluations.  Here’s a brief timeline:

July 2009 President Obama and Secretary of Ed. Duncan announce Race To The Top (RT3) program.  School districts compete for a share of $4.3 billion.  Criteria include more stringent teacher evaluations.

May 2010 State Ed. Department (SED) and NYSUT agree to a new teacher evaluation, and it becomes law. 

Aug 2010 New York wins $696 million in RT3 funds.

May 2011 Responding to schools that wanted to make state assessments an even greater percentage of teacher evaluations, Cuomo changes terms of the 2010 law.

Jun 2011 NYSUT successfully sues the governor.  Cuomo appeals.

Jan 2012 Cuomo announces that, if NYSUT doesn’t settle, he will unilaterally impose his own system.  He further threatens to withhold state aid from schools without a new evaluation system in place.

Feb 2012 NYSUT and Cuomo come to terms on a teacher evaluation system.

The plan that was agreed upon yesterday is nearly identical to the law passed in 2010.  So, what was that all about?  I have no idea.  Cuomo has been fighting the law for two years, but for what?  What core principle was at stake?

Also, would the governor really have been able to legally impose his own evaluation system?  Possibly.  He threatened to make it a part of the budget amendments that are his purview.  Doubtless, this would have resulted in yet another lawsuit. 

I’m not a big fan of the system outlined in the 2010 law, but, the fact is, there was an agreed upon plan.  Cuomo came onto the landscape and began tearing up sod, only to replace it pretty much as he found it. 

I find the whole thing to be emblematic of the current popular discontent with teachers and our unions.  NYSUT was included in the discussions when a new plan was needed to qualify for RT3 funds, and they agreed to a plan that was not completely favorable to teachers.  They gave a lot of ground, but the legislation was passed and NY won $696 million.

Cuomo then summarily dismissed the input from teachers.  He retroactively invalidated us as participants in legislation regulating our profession.  Even when a State Supreme Court judge determined that he was acting illegally, he still sought a backdoor channel to subvert the law NYSUT helped broker. 

And now, after all that, we’re back where we were in 2010.  I’d love for someone from Cuomo’s office to tell us why it was worth it.

Future posts will get more into the details of the new teacher evaluation plan.