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I say, let Cuomo impose his teacher evaluations based upon test scores today.

He will then own the new teacher evaluation system.

When it proves to be a nightmare – and it will – he will own that nightmare too.

Once
voters – and especially parents – see that the new evaluation system
will require new standardized tests in every grade in every subject,
they are going to hate the system because students are going to do
nothing in school but prep for tests or take tests.

Once they see
that because Cuomo has decided to institute “competition” among
teachers, ranking each individual teacher among his/her peers and firing
the bottom 10%, with the likely consequence that teachers will no
longer cooperate with each other, they are going to hate this system.

Once
they see just how much this new “straight-forward” evaluation system
poisons schools, turns teachers against each other, and turns children
into nothing but test scores, they are going to hate this system.

Cuomo’s approval for his education policies is already only 45%.

Wait until AFTER the new eval system is in place a few years and story after story comes out about the new standardized tests added to the school year, the lack of cooperation among teachers because they’re afraid of ending up at the bottom of Cuomo’s bell curve and getting fired, the increased demoralization in schools as administrators do nothing BUT observe teachers and teacher do nothing BUT prep kids for tests.

Cuomo’s approval for his education policies (and perhaps his approval overall) will be much lower than today.

Look to Tennessee as a model for where this thing is going.

Just another sad example of the decline of education in America due to the intrusion of politics and the unqualified.  The disrespect of teachers and education engendered by the meddling of fools like Cuomo, Bloomberg, Klein, Moskowitz, Duncan, et. al.  Do not doubt for one second that the only true goals of the reformer trolls is to destroy the teacher unions and privatize schools.  The LAST thing ob their mind is whether children learn or succeed.  The ONLY people in this country still working for students’ futures are the teachers who show up every day in the classroom. 

“Cuomo’s approval for his education policies is already only 45%.”
Yes, and his “disapproval” on education is 42%. The same poll showed that only 49% of New Yorkers approve of the job public school teachers are doing, and on trust, 50% of New Yorkers trust Cuomo’s influence on education vs. 38% for the teachers unions. 

More importantly, a separate Quinnipiac poll showed that among New York City voters:

71 – 24 percent support merit pay for public school teachers;
54 – 38 percent say firing public school teachers should be easier;
81 – 11 percent say public school teachers should be laid off based on performance, not seniority;
84 – 12 percent support paying student loans up to $25,000 to attract good teachers;
54 – 39 percent support paying $20,000 annual raises to teachers ranked “highly effective” two years in a row.Maybe Cuomo is wrong and maybe the public is wrong, but it’s pretty clear that the public wants things to change. As a side note, I find the uniformly glass-half-empty teacher’s view on VAM to be baffling. The schools are supposedly chock-full of mean, vindictive, incompetent administrators. What would be a better defense against them than an objective measures that shows your kids–adjusted against the expectations for kids in similar life circumstances–are doing better than they ought to be?

SickofBloomberg, you should probably redirect your question about the value of public opinion to reality-based educator, as what I wrote was in response to his citing a limited portion of a poll. 

I’m not sure what your point is about bad parents, awful kids, etc.–are you proposing that these sorts of families not have access to public education?

“we’ll see how parents and voters overall feel about Cuomo’s ed policies.”

I suppose we’ll also see if their feelings about Cuomo’s ed policies remain as irrelevant to their assessment of his overall job performance as they appear to be now.

How will principals be evaluated? What standards are in place for the
principals who will evaluate teachers using the new system. Better yet,
how can supervisors who often have two years of teaching experience and
in some cases have never obtained teaching tenure, possibly be in charge
of evaluating teaching and learning?

Why does everyone avoid
this topic? When will the media get involved? I would like to see Gotham
Schools do a piece on this issue. Many of the people calling the shots
or evaluating teachers know nothing about the profession. If I go and
watch 400 hours of NBC’s ER and then hang out in various hospital
cafeterias, should I be able to evaluate surgeons at Lenox Hill
Hospital?

I dare say the money spent on PR has paid dividends with NYC voters.  I’d be interested in differences between “NYC voters” and “NYC PARENTS.”

Flerplunk,
Agreed re your analysis of “parents only” on items 2 and  5.  One level deeper….
Re #2: Note that the second-easiest topic for parent leaders to get a big protest crowd out before drop-off is “they’re trying to fire our teachers.”  Polls shmolls.  The media eats it up. (#1 is “they’re trying to close our school.”)
Re #5: Voters, parents even, may not understand that the lure of a bonus doesn’t necessarily change teacher effectiveness.  It’s nice they get the recognition, and bump, but it’s not like paying an assembly line worker a bonus to make widgets faster.