Dear Commons Community,

The NY Times is reporting that the NY State Education Department and New York’s teachers’ unions have reached a deal to overhaul teacher evaluations and tie them to student test scores. This would be a major shift in the position of teachers unions that have steadfastly resisted any attempt to tie evaluations to student performance especially as measured by standardized tests. The agreement represents some compromise and does not entirely base evaluations on one test but on multiple tests. A major rationale for the agreement is to allow New York State to qualify for federal education funds that require among other things, tying teacher evaluations to student outcomes. The article accurately concludes that this agreement requires the approval of the NYS Legislature.

The full article is available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/nyregion/11teacher.html?th&emc=tha NY Times

Tony