New York State Education Commissioner John King is set to reveal a plan this Saturday outlining how the Education Department will evaluate teachers going forward. After negotiations between New York City and the teachers’ union stalled, Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature determined that King would have to make a decision by June 1.
According to the New York Daily News, King now has the power to either maintain the status quo or allow the school system to make great progress:
In keeping with his reputation as a reformer dedicated to getting far better results out of a hidebound education establishment, King must deliver a national model for identifying the best and the worst and helping those in the middle improve.
He must be far more demanding than any of the teacher evaluation systems agreed to by the nearly 700 state school districts that are the weakened products of labor negotiations.
King’s rules must be concise so as to eliminate regulations that the union can use to challenge every step of an evaluation.
He must reach for success.
