New York Union Sues State to Stop Teacher Evaluations

Jacob Gershman:

New York's largest teachers union is suing the state Board of Regents over the state's new system for evaluating public-school teachers, a move that could derail plans by the city and hundreds of other school districts to start basing reviews on how well students perform on standardized tests.

In court papers filed in state Supreme Court late Monday, New York State United Teachers claimed that education officials violated the law when they gave school districts the option of assigning significantly more weight to state assessments in their annual reviews of teachers.

Under the law, teachers could lose their jobs if their students continually fail to improve their scores on state standardized tests.

The union, a labor federation representing hundreds of thousands of teachers, claims that the regulations handed down by the Board of Regents run afoul of the evaluation law, which lawmakers approved last year and is set to take effect in July.

The union's suit is asking a judge to put the evaluation plan on hold until courts rule on whether it's legal.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at July 1, 2011 4:07 AM
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