DFER New York
From Our Blog
On teacher evaluations, the reformers win
February 17, 2012
Learning six lessons from this big deal
By Joe Williams
(From NY Daily News, February 17th, 2012)
Weeks after declaring he would be a "lobbyist for students," Gov. Cuomo delivered his 2.75 million young clients a major victory Thursday, using the weight of his office to break through the logjam blocking a common-sense mechanism for evaluating teachers based on whether children are learning.
In addition to helping create a system that prizes quality and performance, Cuomo's leadership here likely saved more than $1 billion in federal funding. The usual suspects in education policy had dragged their feet for so long that even Washington got the message that we had no intention of doing what we promised when we won President Obama's Race to the Top prize.
For students of education reform like me, there are six big lessons here.
Progress, while painful, is possible. For the last century, a teacher rated "satisfactory" was the best we offered to New York State public school students. We have pushed students to strive for A's and B's, but tolerated a system in which nearly all teachers passed and very few were ever deemed "unsatisfactory." It's hard to imagine an evaluation system more insulting to the great teachers who move mountains for the children under their charge.
Getting good teacher evaluations in place will not, itself, take public schools to the higher level where they need to be. But it is impossible to get to that point without basic building blocks in place that allow excellence to win out over mediocrity.
Cuomo is now, officially, the "education governor." Make no mistake about it, the governor took a huge risk when he waded into this mess. One of the reasons politicians -- particularly Democrats -- don't usually attempt to tame the political beast that is public education because the beast fights back. And it fights back hard.
DFER NY State Director Releases Statement on Gov. Cuomo's Announcement of Teacher Evaluation Compromise
February 16, 2012
"In reaching this groundbreaking agreement on teacher evaluations, Gov. Andrew Cuomo reminded us what it looks like when leaders lead. This is a complicated deal with lots of moving pieces, but the Governor skillfully pulled them all together and the end result is a pragmatic agreement that's great for students. That it's also a great deal for teachers, parents, and taxpayers is icing on the cake. We long ago pegged New York as a 'follower' when it comes to education issues, but today our education and political leaders showed that the Empire State can, and should, be a pace-setter once again."
- Elizabeth Ling, DFER NY State Director
Democrats for Education Reform Responds to Alliance for Quality Education's Opposition to Governor Cuomo's Competitive Grants Proposal
February 15, 2012
Contact:
Rosie Hilmer | 212.784.5698 | rhilmer@groupgordon.com
Jeremy Robinson-Leon | 212.784.5702 | jrl@groupgordon.com
Democrats for Education Reform Responds to Alliance for Quality Education's Opposition to Governor Cuomo's Competitive Grants Proposal
New York, NY, February 15, 2012 - Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) released the following statement from New York State Director Elizabeth Ling in response to the Alliance for Quality Education's (AQE) opposition to Governor Cuomo's competitive grants proposal. The grants would reward struggling school districts that demonstrate progress toward improving student achievement:
"Every year, groups funded by special interests like AQE demand more money for the education bureaucracy when they should be demanding better results for our students. Their approach of throwing money at the bureaucracy has clearly failed. That's why New York is number one in the nation on education spending and 38th on graduation rates.
"The Governor's proposal to allocate $250 million of increased education spending to competitive performance grants is exactly the type of strategic approach we need. These grants will reward the struggling schools that demonstrate that they can truly help students improve. Indeed, student outcomes should help determine funding, not the special interests.
Evaluating the Straw Man
February 7, 2012
Photo Courtesy Stock XChange
By Omar Lopez, DFER Policy Analyst
Although people can thoughtfully disagree on the details of the New York State teacher evaluation system, especially since it is still being negotiated, folks who oppose the use of standardized test scores as part of those evaluations are creating a straw man to gather additional opponents.
The straw man argument, where one's argument is misrepresented by an opponent, is most evident in an advertisement by the New York State United Teachers union, which states, "Teachers across the state are committed to high standards and accountability - and we know that a child is more than just a test score."
So here's a question for you: Who is arguing that a child is just a test score?
Could it be Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Michael Bloomberg? No. They have spent significant political capital in the last two months on making a comprehensive teacher evaluation program a reality. They have both argued that a new teacher evaluation system is a necessary step for New York State to raise the level of instruction. Moreover, they point to the millions of dollars that will be lost if an agreement is not made.
Reform worth fighting for
January 26, 2012
Lessons of NYC school closings
By Joe Williams
(From NY Post, January 26, 2012)
As the Department of Education closed nearly two dozen of the city's worst large high schools at the height of the "small-schools boom," one of the critics' most common complaints was that the educrats were doing too much, too soon.
A new report that tracks thousands of students who entered the small high schools created on Mayor Bloomberg's watch makes you wonder what would have happened had they done even more, faster.
From 2002 to 2008, the Department of Education closed 23 large high schools, and in their place opened 216 small schools, many offering such specialized themes as sports management or environmental studies. A good chunk of the reorganization was paid for with $150 million in grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The breathtaking pace of change was certainly justified -- the huge, dysfunctional high schools that Bloomberg's team closed, such as Martin Luther King High in manhattan, were dangerous academic wastelands where the idea of someday graduating was often a sick joke.
Graduation rates were often well below 45 percent in the closed schools. At Theodore Roosevelt HS in The Bronx, it was 3 percent in 2006, its last year.
But naysayers -- including me at times -- wondered whether moving so swiftly would cause more harm than good.
The report, from the nonprofit-research organization MDRC, argues that the reforms were worth the risk. Students in the new, small high schools, the study shows, are making it to the high-school finish line at a much higher rate than at those old, large schools.
More from Our Blog
