NEW YORK—The city’s Department of Education and the teacher’s union failed to agree to a new teacher evaluation system before two deadlines. Gov. Cuomo may submit legislation this week enabling the state Education Department to impose a system on the city, according to the New York Post.
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said on Monday that no deal has been reached, though the city’s Department of Education (NYCDOE) and teacher’s union, the United Federation of Teachers, continue to talk. Walcott said he hasn’t seen the legislation but he understands “ that the governor needs to be responsible for leading the state,” as far as getting an evaluation deal done.
The failure to agree on a deal, despite possibly losing more than $1 billion in funding, has prompted Cuomo to prepare to lay out a proposal the city and union will be forced to adopt, according to the New York Post, without elaborating on what Cuomo’s system would look like.
“Unless something totally unexpected happens in the next few days, the governor will submit the legislation this week,” an unnamed senior administration official told the newspaper.
Walcott said the city would rather lose the money than agree to a poor deal.
“While we always need the money, bad policy will hurt the system even more so,” he said.
The two sides disagreed on how much of the evaluation test scores should count for, as well as the frequency and type of principal observations, among other issues.
Educators 4 Excellence, a group of teachers that has offices in Los Angeles, Minnesota, and New York City posted an advertisement online that has teachers urging Albany to pass a robust system.
“We need Albany to pass a real and meaningful evaluation system now,” the ad states. The ad will also be broadcast in the New York City television market.
