Teachers fight back against Cuomo’s new evaluation system
Local educators angry about Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan to revamp the teacher evaluation system in a way that would increase reliance on standardized test scores and decrease the impact of local observation by educators have taken to social media to make their case.
Teachers at David Boody Junior High School (I.S. 228) in Gravesend recently put out a collaborative video on vimeo directed at Cuomo—featuring teachers explaining why the reform announced during the governor’s State of the State address last month is the wrong move.
What particularly infuriates the educators is that, in what amounts to a seismic shift that includes a heavy increase in the importance of high-stakes testing, 50 percent of a teacher’s rating would be based on student scores on state standardized tests.