The Board of Education today approved the first draft of the state-required Annual Professional Performance Reviews (APPR). The new evaluation system will begin this school, 2011-12, for all teachers of English Language Arts and mathematics in grades 4 to 8. All teachers will be covered by the revamped system in the 2012-13 school year.
The state Legislature agreed to revamp the way teachers are evaluated as part of the state's successful Race to the Top application for federal funds two years ago. Scotia-Glenville will receive about $80,000 from Race to the Top spread over the next four years.
Superintendent Susan Swartz presented the draft plan (PDF) and a PowerPoint about the plan (PDF).
In August, Judge Michael C. Lynch of the New York State Supreme Court (Albany County) ruled in favor of a challenge by the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) and invalidated key portions of the May 16, 2011 regulations of the Board of Regents implementing the APPR for classroom teachers and principals.
One of the issues raised by the judge is that the same student state test scores should not be used to compute 40 percent of a teacher's evaluation score under the APPR. The Board of Regents had determined that 20 percent of the teacher's score would come from state student test scores and up to another 20 percent would also come from test scores, including the re-use of the same test scores.
Despite this ruling, the bulk of the Regents’ APPR regulations remain intact.
The state Education Department has indicated that it may appeal the decision.
Here is information from the state Education Department about the new APPR rules (PDF).
