New York, NY – May 13, 2011 – Earlier today, Governor Cuomo sent a letter to Chancellor of the Board of Regents Merryl Tisch with recommendations for overhauling the teacher and principal evaluation system guidelines. Chancellor Tisch released a statement shortly after committing to rewrite the guidelines. In response to these developments, Democrats for Education Reform issued the following statement from New York State Director Elizabeth Ling:
“Governor Cuomo deserves a lot of credit for doing what’s right for New York’s children, teachers and principals. The State Education Department’s draft guidelines for the teacher evaluation system are far too weak and vague to truly measure performance. Without an effective evaluation system there’s no way to reward great teachers and principals – and no recourse for replacing ineffective ones. That’s unfair to everyone, especially New York’s children.