John King: Student Surveys Need To Be Part Of APPR Teacher Evaluation System

From LoHud:

Classroom observation, including feedback from students, will a “central issue” for the state Legislature to consider next year as it seeks to fine tune controversial teacher evaulations, state Education Commissioner John King said yesterday as he visited a school in Putnam County.

King observed classrooms at the Putnam Valley Elementary School, and then told reporters that it will be important to have multiple measures to evaluation students to ensure there’s evidence of student learning, the Journal News reported today. He suggested student feedback could be one option.

“There are districts around the state that are piloting the use of surveys and asking for feedback from students and parents about teacher performance,” he said. “As the evaluation system progresses, it will continue to evolve over time.”

"Fine tune" the evaluation system by adding student surveys?

Please...

This piece of garbage needs to be thrown out:

Leaders of a regional school superintendents group are calling on the state to scrap its much-debated teacher-evaluation system, contending that a new study proves that the system is irreparably flawed.

The study, released Friday, found that the state formula for calculating evaluations forces school districts to inflate classroom-observation ratings so teachers do not get poor overall scores.

If districts were to give more accurate grades to teachers after classroom visits, the study found, many teachers would "unjustly" receive overall ratings of "developing" or "ineffective." Such districts would "end up looking like they have an underperforming workforce," the report said.

"This is not something that can be fixed; the state Education Department needs to start over," said Louis Wool, Harrison schools superintendent, who was president of the Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents when the group commissioned the study last year.

Of course King, Tisch and the Cuomo administration won't take responsibility for the evaluation mess any more than they would when NYSED and the Regents handed out a charter school to a con artist.

In fact, the NYSED charter director went into hiding to avoid public scrutiny for the mess.

It's amazing how these accountability-meisters are happy to hold teachers accountable to garbage evaluations but refuse any accountability for themselves.

Hey, let's fine tune garbage with student surveys...