The Rochester Teachers Association filed a lawsuit today (read the complaint below) alleging that the new teacher evaluations are unfair because they fail to adequately account for the effects of severe poverty on students.
The suit names John King, commissioner of the State Education Department; the State Board of Regents; the State Education Department; the University of the State of New York; the Rochester school district; the Rochester Board of Education; and Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas.
The suit was filed in State Supreme Court in Albany by New York State United Teachers on behalf of the RTA and more than 100 Rochester teachers, says a NYSUT press release.
Rochester is the fifth poorest city in the country, and the school district is one of the poorest districts in the state.
Here’s the press release from the NYSUT:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Suit: State failed to account for impact of poverty in evaluations
ALBANY, N.Y. March 10, 2014 – The Rochester Teachers Association today filed a lawsuit alleging that the Regents and State Education Department failed to adequately account for the effects of severe poverty and, as a result, unfairly penalized Rochester teachers on their APPR (Annual Professional Performance Review) evaluations.
The suit, filed in state Supreme Court in Albany by New York State United Teachers on behalf of the RTA and more than 100 Rochester teachers, argues the State Education Department did not adequately account for student poverty in setting student growth scores on state tests in grades 4-8 math and English language arts. In addition, SED imposed rules for Student Learning Objectives and implemented evaluations in a way that made it more difficult for teachers of economically disadvantaged students to achieve a score of “effective” or better. As a result, the lawsuit alleges the Regents and SED violated teachers’ rights to fair evaluations and equal protection under the law.
SED computes a growth score based on student performance on state standardized tests, which is then used in teacher evaluations.
Nearly 90 percent of Rochester students live in poverty. The lawsuit says SED’s failure to appropriately compensate for student poverty when calculating student growth scores resulted in about one-third of Rochester’s teachers receiving overall ratings of “developing” or “ineffective” in 2012-13, even though 98 percent were rated “highly effective” or “effective” by their principals on the 60 points tied to their instructional classroom practices. Statewide, just 5 percent of teachers received “developing” or “ineffective” ratings.
“The State Education Department’s failure to properly factor in the devastating impact of Rochester’s poverty in setting growth scores and providing guidance for developing SLOs resulted in city teachers being unfairly rated in their evaluations,” Iannuzzi said. “Rochester teachers work with some of the most disadvantaged students in the state. They should not face stigmatizing labels based on discredited tests and the state’s inability to adequately account for the impact of extreme poverty when measuring growth.”
RTA President Adam Urbanski said an analysis of Rochester teachers’ evaluations for 2012-13 demonstrated clearly the effects of poverty and student attendance, for example, were not properly factored in for teachers’ evaluations. As a result, “dedicated and effective teachers received unfair ratings based on student outcomes that were beyond their control. The way the State Education Department implemented the state testing portion of APPR adds up to nothing more than junk science.”
Urbanski stressed Rochester teachers embrace accountability, support objective and constructive evaluations, and accept that testing has a place in education. “Tests should be used to inform instruction and can be effective tools to help improve teaching and learning,” he said. “But SED’s obsession with standardized testing and data collection has perverted the goals of testing while, ironically, failing to accurately measure the one impact that matters most: the effects of poverty on student achievement.”
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2014.
“Urbanski stressed Rochester teachers embrace accountability…”
Oh, sure. As long as by “embrace” you mean “shirk”.
Maybe it’s time for city taxpayers and students to sue the union.
Teach and you’ll understand … educate yourself on education and the two-way street that it is. The Union sues because it cares about education as it needs to be. We are the doctors of education. We didn’t roll into the position after two interviews. Masters degrees and years of experience bring an enlightenment that the general public isn’t going to understand very easily.
Don’t forget that 40% of a high school teacher’s rating is based on how the rest of the school performs on exams in other classes. So a social studies teacher can lose points based on poor chemistry scores. Even better, a phys Ed teacher’s rating is tied to scores on math tests, science tests, etc…
I teach in a school with 80% free and reduced lunches. One year my students passed the reading test with 100%. The next year they passed with 65%. I’m a National Board Certified teacher, and have been evaluated as a distinguished teacher. I worry that with all my years of study and experience, I might be deemed ineffective, especially with the poorly written standards that we are facing. The Common Core Standards & their associated standardized tests are absurd! We now have Kindergarteners being required to do homework about alliteration. How in the world can we expect to tie teacher effectiveness to such inappropriate standards?
I think taxpayers and students should sue corporate America for not paying taxes and screwing students for their six figure debt and test test mentality. All while hedge fund and privatizers take in millions. Whose the one taking advantage of students?
THERE IS ONE STATISTIC (IN PARTICULAR) IN THIS ARTICLE, WHICH REALLY LEAPS RIGHT OFF THE PAGE, I.E.,
“…98 percent were rated “highly effective” or “effective” by their principals…”
I teach in the Bronx where we have rampant poverty as well. The current teacher evaluation system punishes teachers for working with the neediest students. Two years ago, the best teachers in my school all left for schools with higher achievers, afraid of this evaluation scheme.
This evaluation regime came as part of Race to the Top and the Common Core standards which demand students cite evidence and provide research to back up their claims. Ironically, there is no research showing teacher evaluations will improve anything, and there is solid research showing the links between poverty and family dysfunction and low performance.
Thus, the system, rolled out by Obama and Arne Duncan is a move meant to blame teachers knowing full well low performance is primarily caused by other factors. In NYC, our schools are also cherry picked by charters, leaving higher concentrations of at-risk kids.
The most absurd part of teacher evaluations are that test scores in Math or English get tied to the performance ratings of teachers of Art, Music, Dance, Foreign Language, Gym, Science and Social Studies. How could a rating on a test in a different subject possibly be accurate? The government doesn’t care – this is a bold strike against the profession of teaching and that is why major grassroots protests are ongoing. The next is Sat May 17 at City Hall Park in NYC.
Opt out of political idiocy!
@Two: “there is no research showing teacher evaluations will improve anything”
In point of fact, human history is full of evidence that in any endeavor, accountability improves results.
@Two: “Opt out of political idiocy!”
Only one way to do that: separate school and state.
I was in a school that required us to teach exactly the frameworks that were online for our state. We didn’t even have the materials needed for it (books!) but we had to do it anyway.
I wrote about it here…https://teachermamablogger.wordpress.com/2014/05/10/61/