News

State Education Department Should Act with Urgency

On Thursday, with the New York State Board of Regents hearing testimony regarding the newly approved teacher evaluation system, leading education reform organization StudentsFirstNY and public school parents offered recommendations and sent letters calling for a system that ensures all public school students have access to high-quality teachers.

“The State Education Department should act with urgency and within the timeline prescribed by the legislature to create a fair and rigorous teacher evaluation system,” said StudentsFirstNY Executive Director Jenny Sedlis. “Parents have a right to know whether their children have equitable access to quality teachers, which is only possible with an evaluation system that properly incorporates student test results.”

New York, NY — Leading education reform organization StudentsFirstNY today announced the hiring of Michael Nitzky as Communications Director, effective May 1. The hiring of the seasoned political and media operative builds on the momentum generated by the group's successful push for landmark reforms at the state level.

New York's controversial teacher evaluation system should be "a blueprint" for other states, according to a report by the Brookings Institute, the Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The report's author, Brookings senior fellow Thomas J. Kane, praises the New York evaluation system's "higher standard for tenure" and "use [of] technology to reinvent classroom observation."... “Let’s hope that Andrew Cuomo is not the only governor with the courage to revisit the issue," Kane wrote. Read the full report here: http://brook.gs/1DUAY95

Data released by the New York State Education Department on the distribution of teacher quality reveals inequitable access to highly effective teachers in New York City. Black students are three times more likely and Hispanic students are more than twice as likely to be taught by an ineffective teacher than their white peers.

These findings are troubling given the new statewide analysis demonstrating the great benefit highly effective teachers bring to struggling students. According to data also released today, students who scored a Level 1 in 2011-12 and were subsequently assigned to highly effective teachers for two years were about 5 times more likely to score a Level 3 or above in 2013-14 than their peers not assigned to highly effective teachers. 

Teachers rated highly effective using only the State-provided growth measure 
faired even better. Level 1 students taught by these teachers two years in a row were almost 7 times more likely to score a Level 3 or above in 2013-14 than their peers not assigned to highly effective teachers.

"Today’s findings that ineffective teachers are predominantly placed in communities of color is a wake up call. While families in affluent parts of the state rail against assessing student learning, children in high need communities suffer. This new evidence proves definitively that the teachers’ union's cynical ploy to undermine teacher evaluations is directly harmful to children who need help the most," said StudentsFirstNY executive director Jenny Sedlis.

New York, NY — Statewide education advocacy organization StudentsFirstNY today released an ad praising Governor Cuomo and the legislature for enacting important education reforms as a part of this year’s budget agreement and encouraging them to keep going. The ad will run statewide beginning today.

New York, NY – As final negotiations wrap up on the state budget, public school parent activists and students today rallied outside Tweed Courthouse to urge legislators to pass the meaningful education reforms outlined in Governor Cuomo’s education Opportunity Agenda. Parents and students across New York, including grassroots activists organized by education reform advocacy organization StudentsFirstNY and Derrell Bradford, executive director of NYCAN, view Governor Cuomo’s reforms as critical to improving public school options.

"Parents deserve unbiased, unfiltered information about policies affecting their children, so it's unfortunate that the teachers' union controls the messages that are sent through schools. Governor Cuomo's Opportunity Agenda will benefit children tremendously, but the union would rather generate confusion as a shield to protect its own interests. The Governor's policies would ensure we recruit and retain high performing teachers, that we don't give lifetime jobs to teachers who are not effective, that we can remove low performers from classrooms, and that the interests of students are put first."

-- Tenicka Boyd, StudentsFirstNY Director of Organizing

New York, NY – StudentsFirstNY today issued a brief analysis comparing the difference in teacher effectiveness between New York City’s high poverty and low poverty districts following the State Education Department’s recent release of teacher
evaluation data.