By Josh Margolin
(From New York Post, October 22nd, 2011)
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday blasted teachers- union complaints over a new evaluation system that’s not even operational yet — saying the UFT is just trying to subvert a real measure of teacher quality.
“Teachers unions don’t want the evaluations,” he said on his weekly radio appearance. “There are a lot of teachers who do — not all — but there are a lot.”
Bloomberg was responding to a Post report that the UFT was already threatening to walk away from negotiations over details of the rating system. which can’t officially launch without a deal.
The union claimed principals were implementing the new evaluation standards already, largely as a tool to punish teachers — but only managed to furnish one example to the Department of Education.
The evaluation system will allow teachers to be rated in part by their students’ scores on standardized tests for the first time — something unions had objected to for years.
United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew disputed Bloomberg’s suggestion that his union was purposely acting as an impediment.
“I personally did a ton of work to change the legislation so we could have an evaluation system, so if the mayor said that, he clearly is wrong,” Mulgrew told The Post.
“Whether it gets done under this administration or not, this union will fight continually to make sure we have an evaluation system that will allow for real development and growth.”
But some education advocates said the teachers union has been talking out of both sides of its mouth, agreeing to changes but then pulling back because of new objections.
The UFT’s umbrella group — New York State United Teachers — sued this summer over last-minute changes to the evaluation system that would have allowed teachers to be rated as poor based on student test scores alone.
An Albany court ruled in the union’s favor in August, prompting an appeal from the state.
Even though the evaluation framework has already been written into state law, each district still must reach a deal with its local teachers union over the nitty-gritty.
If no deal is reached in the city, the current evaluation system — which does not take student test scores into account — would remain active.
Democrats for Education Reform director Joe Williams said the union’s posturing this week showed its true colors.
“This is just the latest in a long string of examples that the UFT was never, ever serious about making this work,” he said.
Timeline for new teacher-evaluation system:
* Launched last month in 33 struggling schools receiving federal funds.
* Will apply to thousands of 4th to 8th grade math and English teachers this year.
* Scheduled to roll out to teachers in all grades and subjects next year.
* Can’t expand beyond 33 schools until city and teachers union sign an agreement.