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Slow-Going On Teacher Evaluations

“Teacher evaluation plans moving slowly”
by Scott Waldman
Albany Times Union
September 18, 2012

Only seven local school districts have had their teacher evaluation plans approved by the state, despite a looming deadline that could eliminate some state aid.

And while many districts have been slow to negotiate plans with their unions and then submit them to the state, a delay may also be coming from the Education Department. The state has been overwhelmed by the work required to go through the evaluations, said Valerie Grey, executive deputy commissioner, during a state Board of Regents meeting last week. “I think it’s fair to say we underestimated the time and resources that we needed to review these plans,” she said.

Grey said the state did not expect the wide variety of plans it received, and thought they would be more similar. Plans are reviewed three times and can take up to six weeks for completion.

A job listing recently appeared on the state Education Department website for “an exciting opportunity to be part of the education reform efforts undertaken by the Board of Regents and the Department.” The temporary job, which pays $50 per hour, seeks educators to help review the plans, determine if they comply with the law and provide technical assistance for districts, teachers, unions and educator associations. Qualified applicants will have a master’s degree and five years in prekindergarten-through-12th-grade education.

The state had previously been using law students as interns to sift through the dense language contained in the proposed evaluations, which stretch dozens of pages.

And a serious logjam could be developing as a crush of evaluation proposals still have to come in and two deadlines have already passed.

So far, the state has approved just 75 plans and offered feedback on another 151 out of a total of 700 districts. Though the state Education Department encouraged districts to submit plans by July 1 and then again Sept. 1, the majority have missed both deadlines and could be in danger of losing out on aid increases next year. About 295 of the state’s districts have submitted teacher evaluation plans.

Districts are already under significant pressure to implement the plans by Jan. 17. That’s when Gov. Andrew Cuomo has promised to cut off state aid increases for those districts that don’t have evaluation plans in place. The state is required to develop a teacher evaluation plan as part of its application under the federal Race to the Top competitive grant program.

Despite underestimating the amount of manpower that needed to be put into approving the evaluations, the Education Department is certain all deadlines can be met, spokesman Dennis Tompkins said. He said the number of plans submitted will increase as districts see the successful plans.

Though the process may experience delays at both the state and district level, there are no plans to change the Jan. 17 deadline, state officials said Monday.
“School districts are on schedule and SED has the capacity to process mass applications and to meet the deadline, as many will use the early approved submissions as models for their own,” said Josh Vlasto, a spokesman for Cuomo.

Among the approved evaluation plans, Schenectady’s has been held up as a model that other districts can emulate, partially because it uses a unique model of group assessment. Other districts that have had their plans approved include Albany, Greenwich, Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk, Mohonasen, Schalmont and Schodack.