A Reader Says Farina, Mulgrew Did Not Say Teachers Should "Embrace" Teacher Evaluation System

As I posted earlier today, the NY Post reported this surprising news today:

Meanwhile de Blasio, Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña and teachers union boss Michael Mulgrew spoke of “unity” at the United Federation of Teachers spring conference Saturday at the New York Hilton.

...

Mulgrew and Fariña agreed that teachers should “embrace” the new evaluation system — one critics say was badly weakened when legislators voted to delay tying student test scores to teacher assessment for two years.

I was skeptical and wrote that:

I have a difficult time believing Farina, a career educator who worked as a principal for a long, long time, would think this system mad with compliance should be "embraced".

I also have a difficult time believing that Mulgrew, who in the past has "embraced" this system himself, is still doing so after all the criticism and cries for help the UFT is getting from teachers under assault all over the city via the ADVANCE evaluation system.

Well, a reader named Music Lover was at the UFT Spring Conference and reports the following:

I was at the conference yesterday, RBE. Carmen and Mike said nothing of the sort about junk science evaluation being embraced during the moderation session. The topic of evaluations came up, but not in this degree at all. I took explicit notes while she was speaking.

Also, as to my knowledge, it seemed to be a surprise (except for UFT staff) that Mayor De Blasio was going to show up and speak at the conference. I was not expecting that at all. He said nothing about embracing the evaluation. He did say, expect big changes to come in September and he will try to help bring some dignity back to the teaching profession.

Scott Stringer also showed up and said the same thing. Tish James showed up at the end to speak.

The Post writer already got one part of the story wrong even before we caught this doozy - the writer wrote that "critics say (the evaluation system) was badly weakened when legislators voted to delay tying student test scores to teacher assessment for two years."

Actually, legislators did not vote to do that, nor was that provision in the 2014 state budget agreement that did contain some changes to CCSS testing for students.

Now we have Music Lover telling us that Farina and Mulgrew did not say what the Postie reporter says they said.

Two screw-ups in one Post article.

Classic Post journamilism.