By Elizabeth Ling, DFER NY State Director
Last week, an Assembly bill was introduced that would require charter schools to meet the same teacher evaluation standards as the public school district in which the charter resides. These standards would be aligned with a new statewide teacher evaluation law recently brokered by Governor Cuomo.
The bill’s sponsors display a fundamental misunderstanding of the difference between how charter schools and traditional district schools currently evaluate their teachers.
District schools typically operate under a regime where over 99% of teachers are rated Satisfactory, with only a handful of the Unsatisfactory teachers removed from their positions each year. Under this system, ineffective educators can stay in the district for years with no consequences to themselves, their principals, or their schools. This is a system that is bad for kids, and the new teacher evaluation law will be an improvement.
Charter schools, in contrast, are held accountable for their results–namely, every 5 years when their charter contract is reviewed by the State Education Department. In return, they are given more autonomy over how to run their operations.