New York may drop the use of test scores to evaluate teachers
After hundreds of thousands of New York students opted out of exams in the last school year, the local Governor may now reduce the major role previously played by test scores in evaluating teachers. "Two members of the Board of Regents, the body that sets state education policy, said they had heard that Mr. Cuomo was pushing for a moratorium on the use of test scores in evaluations. The two board members, Kathleen M. Cashin and Betty A. Rosa, both said they would heartily support such a change”, according to the New York Times. In January of last year, Cuomo sparked a debate on the role test scores play in determining teacher effectiveness after deciding that up to 50% of teacher evaluations would be determined by the scores. Now, according to the New York times, that percentage is likely to be significantly reduced, the Times said.

Less than a year ago, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York proclaimed that the key to transforming the state’s education system was tougher evaluations for teachers, and he pushed through changes that increased the weight of student test scores in teachers’ ratings.

Now, facing a parents’ revolt against testing, the state is poised to change course and reduce the role of test scores in evaluations. And according to two people involved in making state education policy, Mr. Cuomo has been quietly pushing for a reduction, even to zero. That would represent an about-face from January, when the governor called for test scores to determine 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation.

Administration officials characterized the governor’s position differently, saying he was waiting for the recommendations of a task force he had set up to conduct a review of the Common Core standards and assessments.

“There is no position of this administration with respect to this issue,” the governor’s director of state operations, Jim Malatras, said this week.