Dear Commons Community,

One day after the public release of teachers ratings, there has been wide denunciation from many individuals.  The New York Times reported that  “the word of the day was shame, both on the press and on the city’s Education Department for pursuing and suing for the data’s release, and on behalf of teachers, many of whom view this as public humiliation.”   Notable individuals who commented included:

“The Bloomberg Administration is making a grave mistake by releasing personal teacher ratings,” said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, a likely candidate for mayor, in a statement. “It would be irresponsible for any news outlet to print this data or represent it as an accurate portrayal of what really happens in the classroom.”

Chancellor of the Board of Regents Merryl Tisch said “I really think publishing the names of teachers and their rankings on one metric of any type of teacher performance is not going to result in the improvements that we want,” she said. “And it will demonize teachers and it’s going to make it more difficult to retain the best and brightest in the classroom.”

Even schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott advised caution and said he had mixed feelings about the reports and worried how they would be interpreted by parents and reporters, he said the department had to comply with the court’s decision ordering the release of the information with names attached.

Tony