New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is trying to reduce the role of testing in teacher evaluations, perhaps to zero, according to The New York Times’ interview with two people involved in state education policy.
This would be in keeping with a very recent change in tone from the governor when discussing teacher evaluations. In September, Cuomo announced a Common Core Task Force to review and possibly make recommendations to overhaul the standards. During the press conference announcing the task force, he said, “While the teacher evaluation systems are nationally recognized as a step in the right direction, I believe it must be done correctly and fairly. It is critical that teacher evaluations support teachers in improving their practices, not punish them.”
But almost a year ago, when the he gave his annual State of the State address, Cuomo adopted a more combative tone toward teachers, calling the current teacher evaluation system “baloney” and criticizing the argument teachers often make for why students aren’t succeeding — factors in the environment around the school, such as impoverished neighborhoods, and limited funding for schools.
During that speech, Cuomo said that “the education industry’s cry that more money will solve the problem is false” and called for making students’ standardized test scores 50 percent of teacher evaluations, with the other half determined by outside evaluators’ and school officials’ observations. Then he refused to boost overall school funding by 4.8 percent, or nearly $1 billion in extra funding, unless legislators agreed to all of his reforms; if those reforms were not adopted, funding would only rise 1.7 percent.
The American Statistical Association advises against relying on any one piece of qualitative information in high-stakes decisions such as the hiring of teachers. Its April 2014 statement concludes that the use of tests as a measurement for performance could ignore teacher behaviors that contribute to longer-term benefits for students.
But it’s unlikely that the governor is considering a change in teacher evaluation methods because he began paying attention to the statistics argument against heavily weighing tests to decide teacher effectiveness. Cuomo’s sudden change of heart may have something to do with the so-called “opt out movement” in his state, as parents increasingly excuse their children from standardized tests.
Across the country, parents have taken part in the opt-out movement out of fear that students spend too much time on tests and that teachers “teach to the test” instead of teaching in more creative and engaging ways. The movement became stronger in New York this past spring, when more than 150,000 students opted out of tests, especially in wealthy suburban areas such as Long Island and Lower Hudson Valley. Although teachers unions typically stop short of fully endorsing the movement, they were supportive of parents who chose to opt out of the exams.
Only a couple months after Cuomo’s State of the State address, a Quinnipiac University poll reported that the governor’s approval rating dropped to 50 percent — the lowest it had been since he first took office — and it’s stayed in the low 50s since.
The shift in Cuomo’s comments on teacher evaluations, and this anticipated policy change, also comes after a change in tone on the federal level. Last month, the Obama administration released a new “testing action plan,” or guidance on the amount of time students should spend on testing.
The guidelines didn’t get very specific — they simply said tests should be “fair” and “worth taking” — and they don’t have any teeth, but it was still a major win for critics of standardized testing. The most specific guidance was that students should spend no longer than 2 percent of classroom instruction time preparing for tests, but more specific guidance will be released in January. This is a significant change from earlier in Barack Obama’s presidency, when the administration pushed for more teacher accountability through testing.