The compromise proposal, authored and backed by Gov. Andrew
Cuomo and passed by the legislature, will publish assessment scores but
keep teacher names private.
The passage of a compromise bill to deal with the public release of
teacher evaluation information marks a victory for the Governor of New
York, Andrew Cuomo. The proposal, which the governor said was a “take it
or leave it proposition,” will make evaluation scores available
publicly, but will not associate them with teachers’ names, except in cases when the parents wish to find out the scores of their kids’ current teachers.
The Republicans in the state legislature have previously said that
the compromise doesn’t go far enough, but on the last day of the session
they indicated that they will vote to approve the measure. In the end,
the bill was approved with the nearly-unanimous 59-1 vote, and no
debate, in the state Senate. In the Assembly, representatives discussed
the proposal for nearly three hours before passing it with the vote of
118-17.
One person who has expressed lack of satisfaction with this
development is New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who felt that
the public should have access to the full, unredacted assessment data.
Members of his administration lobbied lawmakers to make the information
generally available, but in the end they weren’t able to overcome either
Cuomo’s determination or the lobbying muscle of the state’s teachers
unions.
What might have swayed reluctant lawmakers was that the option was
either to accept the governor’s proposal or to continue allowing
complete public disclosure. No alternative plan made it as far down the
legislative pipeline or enjoyed the same broad level of support.
“This particular path we’re on is a mistake, and we need to rethink what we’re doing here; but clearly we don’t want a repeat of last February’s or March’s media disaster,” said Assemblyman James Brennan (D-Brooklyn) in voting “yes.”
After his defeat, Bloomberg said: “Evaluations are important resources for parents, principals, and teachers alike and parents need information to make good decisions about their children’s schools.”
He credited the bill with at least allowing the online release of the information so parents can analyze how districts perform.
Although some lawmakers have indicated that they viewed this
compromise as a temporary measure and wanted to take another in-depth
look at public availability of assessment data in the near future, Cuomo
had expressed a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the idea of revisiting
this issue in next legislative session.
In all, the legislature made full use of the waning hours of the
session, tackling not only education, but bills that dealt with
gambling, child pornography and several small budgeting issues.
