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the first 20 percent

Some teachers to get a sneak peek of new evaluations this week

A screenshot from one school's ARIS "Community Space" shows that teachers were able to download "growth scores" for their colleagues last week. Teachers in tested grades and subjects are set to receive last year's growth scores, which will factor into new evaluations, this week.

About one in five city teachers will get a sneak peek on Tuesday about how they might be rated under a new evaluation system.

That’s when the city Department of Education will be sharing the state’s “growth scores” with teachers for whom a score was generated. The scores reflect how well a teacher’s students performed on state math and reading exams last year compared to other students like them and, according to state law, must eventually constitute 25 percent of annual evaluations for teachers who work in tested grades and subjects.

In New York City, about 17 percent of teachers teach fourth or fifth grade or English or math in middle school. They will get their growth score for the 2011-2012 school year Tuesday evening in their Department of Education email, department officials said.

The department has had the information since the end of the summer, state education officials said at a briefing for reporters last month. Principals got the reports last week and are expected to use the scores to help teachers at their school improve, according to Connie Pankratz, a department spokeswoman. But teachers are supposed to get access only to their own scores.

At at least one school, last week’s data upload did not go as planned. Starting Wednesday, when teachers at a large middle school in Brooklyn, logged on to the department’s data warehouse, they could download the effectiveness reports for all of their colleagues. The reports appeared in a long list in a section of the data system, ARIS, called the “Community Space.”

That should not have happened, Pankratz said. ”We are working to ensure that only administrators or other authorized staff have access to the growth scores,” she said.

The reports, which the State Education Department generated, show the number of students tested and the percentage who scored above the state average. They also show how many of the students outperformed other students like them, using disability, socioeconomic status, proficiency in English, and prior test score history to break students into smaller groups. A poor fourth-grader with special needs whose native language is English and who scored at the lowest level on his third-grade tests would have his scores compared only to other students who fell into the same categories.

Compiling their students’ adjusted performance gives teachers an “adjusted mean growth percentile” that is then converted into a  score between 0 and 20, representing what would account for 20 percent of the teachers’ annual rating under an evaluation system that conforms to the state’s new evaluation law. Teachers with a rating between 9 and 17 will fall into the “effective” category.

Those data points will be made public, in aggregate form, for each school early next year.

In addition, a chart on each teacher’s growth score report shows the performance of students with disabilities, English language learners, poor students, and students with particularly high or low test scores in the past. (The information will be displayed only for groups that contained 16 or more students.) The subgroup information will be used for school accountability, state officials said, but will not be reflected in the teacher effectiveness scores that are released publicly next year.

For the 83 percent of city teachers who do not work in tested grades or subjects, the state will calculate student growth using a different set of measures. Those measures, known as Student Learning Objectives, require districts to choose state, homemade, or third-party assessments that can be used to calculate how much students have improved over the course of a school year.

  • Jane Gum

    Teachers at one middle school, “were able to download the effectiveness reports of all of their colleagues”. This fact alone shows that the conspiracy minded folks are not so wacky after all. If the “accident” of releasing scores happened once, it can happen again. What happens if these effectiveness scores are “accidently” released to the general public? If I were a teacher at that middle school I would be seriously p*ssed that my effectiveness report was viewed by God know how many of my colleagues. The bottom line is this is just the start of the horror that is to come.

  • http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/ reality-based educator

    Do you intend to tell us how these “adjusted mean growth percentiles” were calculated and how they suffer from some inherent biases, or are you just going to uncritically recite what the NYSED and the NYCDOE told you about these reports and leave it at that?

    Because you are doing your readers a disservice by failing to report the problems inherent in these reports as found by Bruce Baker at School Finance 101:

    http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/its-time-to-just-say-no-more-thoughts-on-the-ny-state-tchr-eval-system/

    http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2012/11/17/air-pollution-in-ny-state-comments-on-the-ny-state-teacherprincipal-rating-modelsreport/

    http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/when-disinformation-is-fueled-by-misinformation-chancellor-tisch-you-are-wrong/

  • http://twitter.com/leoniehaimson leonie haimson

     I was about the write nearly the same thing!  thanks Reality-based educator!

  • BloombergMustGo

    Disgraceful and devious, but not unexpected.

  • pl

    These are already in ARIS.  Any teacher can see any colleagues score at their school, if they know where to look.  advised UFT district rep of this situation.

  • Tom

    Ha Ha suckers! That’s why I am getting a license in Physical Education. No “real evaluation”  for me.

  • Gonzalez336

    Maybe we need to evaluate principals!

  • Hannibal

    Just for the record Tom you 1) probably could’nt get throught the curriculum, 2) you would most likely drop a load the first time you had to teach 50 to 100 students at once, 3) We have lesson plans just like you, and are observed just like anyone else and are held to real evaluations.  So I guess if you are looking to avoid real evaluation why don’t you ask the custodian for a job as a sweeper- you probably can’t do that either. P.S. We make a hell of alot more than “real teachers” with per session, coverages etc. Ha Ha sucker!

  • Guest

    Yo Tommy boy – do us all a favor and get lost.  If you truly feel that way, it’s obvious the career isn’t for you. It’s also clear you cannot understand or have the ability to deal with what is happening within the system.   Would love to meet you one day and play one on one – 21 – on the court.  I assure you I’d easily “school ya!”   By the way I teach ELA high schools; the gym teachers at my last and current school, although wonderful teachers, could never “hang.”  Please educate yourself before spewing only something a “sucker” would on a site like this.  Glad I got that out of my system – PHEWWWW!

  • Mr. Shoop

    Hey Tom: I’ve been a PE teacher for over 15 years. I have news for you, the new evaluation system will effect PE teachers as well. (It will effect music, art, dance, shop teachers, etc) Get with the program and realize that there will be state and city tests for physical education and it will NOT BE THE FITNESSGRAM. We will probably have to create portfolios as well. Being a great PE teacher in NYC is no joke and to joke about it cheapens the hard work that thousands of quality physical educators perform each and every day. Huge class sizes, mixed grades in the same class, small gymnasiums, (or none at all), lack of PE materials, hardly any professional development, the list goes on. I respect each and every teacher no matter what subject they teach in NYC and they all work hard and want to make the lives of their students improve every year. Don’t think being a PE teacher in NYC is a piece of cake till’ after break up a major brawl with 6 or 7 middle school kids, or till’ your locker room gets broken into and your principal blames it on you, or until… you’ll see!!!

  • Concerned teacher

    Ensuring that the qualifications of those running the building are of the highest caliber is essential.  An orchestra is only as good as the conductor that is leading it.

  • fed up

    you are soooooooooooo right.  We have a teacher from a middle school as our new principal……we are an elementary school….she is clueless

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