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Draft regulations
released for new performance reviews
Race to the Top focuses attention on effectiveness of teachers
and principals
 On
Monday, April 18, the New York State Education Department
released its long awaited draft regulations to support the state’s
promise to develop a teacher and principal evaluation system
based, in part, on student performance. The new criteria of the
Annual Professional Performance Review were a condition to
receiving $696 million in federal Race to the Top money last
year.
The revised APPR rates teachers and principals in four
categories: Highly Effective, Effective, Developing, and
Ineffective. The new system, passed into law in 2010, weighs
student achievement more prominently, accounting for 40 percent
of the evaluation.
The draft regulations call for 20 percent of the evaluation to
be based on students' progress on state standardized tests, and
20 percent based on student growth using locally developed
measurements. Thirty percent of the evaluation for teachers will
be based on classroom observation, while principals will be
assessed on leadership and management actions.
The remaining 30 percent of the evaluation can be accumulated
through multiple measures, including structured reviews of
teacher or student portfolios, feedback from peers, parents, and
students, or evaluations by trained, independent evaluators.
Principals will need to demonstrate a contribution to improving
teacher effectiveness under their watch.
The final configuration of evaluation criteria must be
negotiated between individual school districts and the
respective bargaining units.
The draft regulations will weather a short public comment
period—until Friday, April 29—before being amended or ratified
by the Board of Regents. The Regents would like the new
regulations in place before July 1.
HFM BOCES’ 15 component school districts will receive
approximately $1.1 million of the federal RTTT grant over four
years to advance education reform around four specific areas:
• Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to
succeed in college, the workplace and the global economy;
• Building data systems that effectively measure student growth
and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they
can improve instruction;
• Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective
teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most;
and
• Turning around the lowest-achieving schools.
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