Urge privacy on teacher evaluations
ALBANY — State leaders are quietly discussing a plan that would restrict the public release of future teacher evaluations, the Daily News has learned.
The teacher unions are pressuring lawmakers, who approved controversial changes last week to state and city pension systems, to deliver on the issue of evaluation privacy, sources said.
The issue has popped up this past weekend as part of the last-minute budget talks among state leaders, multiple sources said.
“There’s discussions being had, but I don’t know if it’s been resolved,” said a legislator familiar with the situation.
Teacher unions went ballistic after the recent court-ordered release of controversial city teacher evaluations from 2007 and 2010.
Pushed by Gov. Cuomo, the Legislature last week enacted a law requiring school districts statewide to come up with new teacher-grading systems by January or face the loss of their state school aid increases.
Assembly Democrats are said to be particularly supportive of keeping the results of future evaluation rankings secret from the public — or at least severely restricting their release.
It’s unclear whether Gov. Cuomo would go along with the he idea. Mayor Bloomberg has spoken of the importance of letting parents know how effective their kids’ teachers are.
One insider with knowledge of the talks called it “Albany at its worst.”
“This is a last-minute, dark-of-night play by the unions and the he politicians they control, without regard for what’s good for kids,” s,” the source said.
Reps for Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos had no comment Sunday, while officials from the city teachers union didn’t return calls for comment. Carl Korn, a spokesman for the state teachers union, would not confirm whether there are talks to keep the teacher evaluations private, but made it clear that’s what the union wants.
“We will fight to ensure teachers’ privacy is protected and teachers are not shamed or humiliated by the news media,” Korn said.
Aides to Cuomo and the legislative leaders worked through the weekend trying to complete the budget negotiations. There were expectations that some budget bills could be printed late Sunday while the rest of the talks may wrap up as soon as Monday.