Calling for an end to the unfair distribution of teacher quality across New York City public schools, StudentsFirstNY organizers and hundreds of New York City public school parents came together today to demand action to address the disproportionate number of unsatisfactory-rated teachers in schools with the highest needs. Several parents addressed the crowd and shared their personal commitment to this effort.

"Well-designed, and well-executed surveys can be an invaluable resource, but only insofar as the results lead to visible changes to the teacher evaluation process."

States and districts across the country have set out to implement new teacher evaluation systems in an effort to improve teacher quality and raise student achievement. With teachers, administrators, and entire systems in a state of transition, there is no better time to capture and leverage critical feedback from those on the ground.

In a joint letter, education reform groups thanked Governor Cuomo, Senate Leaders Skelos and Klein, and Assembly Speaker Silver for the substantial improvements you made to New York State’s teacher evaluation law as part of this year’s budget. Download the full letter (PDF) below.

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On Monday night, StudentsFirstNY hosted a conversation with parents from our Brooklyn and Queens community chapters. The conversation this week included an interactive game that challenged parents to work together to decide which comments and political leaders supported education reform and which ones opposed it.

Leaders from the teachers' union and the City have until January 17th to reach an agreement on a new teacher evaluation system or else NYC schools will lose $300 million.

With one day left before the deadline and still no deal, StudentsFirstNY ran the newspaper ad below in New York papers urging leaders to come to an agreement for our teachers and our students.

Today marks the tenth and final day of StudentsFirstNY's effort to stress the urgency of a deal on a new evaluation system for NYC public school teachers.

Day #9: $300 million could pay for 50,000 Smart boards equaling 29 for each of New York City’s 1,700 schools

Day #8: $300 million could pay for the enrollment of an additional 28,487 kids in Head Start programs

Day #7: $300 million could pay for 97.1 million school lunches or enough lunches to feed 539,374 NYC students for an entire school year

Day #6: $300 million could pay for 937.5 million pencils, which equals 852 pencils for each of the 1.1 students in NYC