Judge to Rule Any Day Whether Teacher Report Cards Should Be Made Public

A Manhattan judge will rule any day now whether New York City elementary school teacher performance ratings should be made public.

Currently, the rule is pending. But if passed, anyone will be able to request information on teacher performance for 12,000 out of the 76,000 teachers citywide. It's a small percentage. However, teachers and administrators who fall in that small percentage are not thrilled about the idea. 

For educators and school administrators, biased and incorrect data that may present an incomplete picture and compromise the integrity of teacher performance are the biggest concerns.

One public school principal, who lives in Bed-Stuy, said the ratings do not take into account a wide variety of internal factors educators must work against every day.

Aside from that, he added, some of the data is flawed: He pointed out that currently, teachers and administrators can look at their own ratings. And when he checked in recently on his own scorecard, he discovered he was listed as working at a school during a time after which he had long left.

Parents, on the other hand, are anxious and pleased about the possibility of a teacher report card. And accountability is important for many parents in Bed-Stuy.

“I think it’s only fair that their ratings are posted just like our kids get graded and handed report cards,” said Katie Barrott whose son is a third grader at P.S. 5 Ronald McNair school. “It’s a good thing. It will give me some form of comfort and a sense of how well my child and his classmates are performing. These ratings can be used as a form of motivation as well,” 

The teacher data rating model was implemented within the Department of Education four years ago as a quantitative way to show what impact or effect the teacher has on students. The current rating system grades teachers with a satisfactory or unsatisfactory grade.

“Of course the data doesn’t give the entire story on how a teacher performs. It is a tool for teachers and principals to use at the school level,” said a DOE employee who did not want to be named. "It definitely raises the stakes; these reports were made internal but teachers may feel more under pressure if their information is made public in the newspaper."

"I know the ratings being made public is good for the parents," said Satina Serrette, whose daughter is in first grade at P.S. 5. "It's just  like a person would get a check up from the doctor to make sure that everything is fine with themselves, it's the same way we should check up behind our kid's teachers. The teachers will know that someone is watching over them, which will make them perform better."

"While I believe that the evaluation of teachers is important for accountability and the education of our children, I also remain concerned about an overemphasis on test scores,” said Council Member Al Vann.

“Rankings and ratings for teachers should be based on a holistic evaluation that significantly values other aspects of teaching. We can all agree that having the best teachers in the classroom is what’s best for our school kids," he said. "But we do not want to push out effective teachers by stigmatizing them with negative ratings based on a limited assessment.”

Do you think teacher assessments should be made public at this time? If so, what criteria for scoring teacher performance would you like to see included? Provide us your comments.