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the rating game

January 10, 2013

Report: Low-rated teachers more often work with poor students

by Geoff Decker, at 1:37 pm

A new report by the advocacy group StudentsFirstNY found that low-rated teachers work more often in high-poverty schools. The group presented its findings outside City Hall.

The poorer a school’s students are, the more likely they are to be taught by low-rated teachers.

That’s the conclusion of a new report by the education advocacy group StudentsFirstNY. The group, which is critical of the city’s current teacher evaluation system, looked at ratings given to 65,527 teachers during the 2011-2012 school year and found that the low-rated teachers disproportionately worked in schools with high concentrations of poor students.

At schools with relatively few poor students, 1.14 percent of teachers received low ratings last year, according to the report. But at schools where more than 85 percent of students are considered poor, 3.9 percent did.

The inequities were even more pronounced when comparing schools with different demographics. At schools where fewer than a quarter of students are black or Hispanic, just 1.06 percent of teachers got low ratings. At schools where almost all students are black or Hispanic, that figure was 4.13 percent.

The report says the findings support StudentsFirstNY’s position that new teacher evaluations are needed in New York State.

The group has panned the current evaluation system, in which teachers can score either “unsatisfactory” or “satisfactory,” though it used ratings issued under the system for the new report. It is among those pressing the teachers union to make concessions so the city can adopt new evaluations by Jan. 17 and avoid losing $250 million in state aid.

“This report highlights the utter failure of New York City schools to provide quality teachers to those students who need them most,” said Executive Director Micah Lasher, who left the Bloomberg administration last year to start StudentsFirstNY. “A successful deal to implement a meaningful teacher evaluation system is a necessary first step toward righting that wrong.”

The report makes 10 recommendations, mostly aimed at making it easier for schools to hire, fire, and reward teachers more easily.

According to a coalition formed to counter StudentsFirstNY’s influence in the city’s mayoral race, New Yorkers for Great Public Schools, blame for the skew in teacher ratings across schools lies elsewhere.

“The inequitable distribution of quality teachers is the result of Mayor Bloomberg’s refusal to provide adequate support and professional development to teachers,” said Zakiyah Ansari, a spokeswoman, in a statement. “Teacher evaluations and paying for test score performance will not solve the problem.”

Indeed, a new evaluation system that complies with the current state law would not allow the city to act on the report’s findings. It would not allow districts to remove low-scoring teachers any faster: Teachers will still have to have two straight low ratings to face termination. It also won’t redistribute teachers among schools — although a feature of the “value-added” algorithm that will be used to generate part of each rating might make it look like that has happened.

At a press conference outside City Hall this morning to unveil the report, Lasher said that while new evaluations are not a panacea, they are a necessary first step if the city wants to tackle inequities in the way teachers are distributed among schools.

“First we need to get a clear and robust picture [of teacher quality] in all schools,” he said. “New evaluations give more texture and feedback.”

The number of unsatisfactory ratings handed out each year has increased under Mayor Bloomberg, who has aggressively sought to replace the city’s lowest-performing educators. U-rated teachers were more than four times more likely to leave the school system after receiving their ratings last year than teachers rated satisfactory, according to city data.

StudentsFirstNY’s complete “Unsatisfactory” report is below:

SFNY Unsatisfactory Report by GothamSchools.org‘s profile on Scribd” href=”/profiles/show/7995812-gothamschools-org”>GothamSchools.org

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  • Citizen X

    And the term “TFA” means what? Ivy League grads who just graduated(and want to dabble in education to enhance their resumes) and think that because they know the latest theory they know it all and feel they do not need the protection of the union? If these “carpetbaggers” were in education for the long haul, they too would become “veteran teachers” and know the importance of a union . Perhaps if you were not so arrogant your tag would not have to be “DonthateTFA”

  • Nyr683

    bravo bk,,,this is the problem with people know it alls,,,worry about your own messily wasted job…why is it now that people are so jealous of an educators job…summers off….complainers…stop crying and complaining get a degree if you want to work in education 

  • Nyr683

    i would love for bloomdoe and his cronies teach in a school located in the south bronx….the kids are all from other countries feasting on services here like free education, free lunch, free rent, free food and even freebies for new born babies…learn?? whats that they are not interested…the other day all the international kids (and there are thousands of them) were chanting ‘da america dream’.  barack obama….true story people…our buddy politicians are wrecking our country, state, schools all of it

  • Nyr683

    the south bronx is loaded with international kids who come here from other countries and bombard our schools…i.e.  international high school is a pure example here,,all the kids are in this country for less than one year..they receive free education, all get free lunch (which they toss around in the lunch room like mudballs) free rent, free baby formula, free social security disability insurance…it goes on and on….the politicians have created a systems of free giveaways but they are concerned about ‘having the best teachers in the classroom’  you fregen morons

  • Nyr683

    bravo bravo were finally getting it

  • Nyr683

    please people do not vote for christine quinn unless you want more of bllomdoe policy and we will be living in the shadow of this midget of a man who has wrecked the system….it is quite pleasing to be listening to some of the other mayoral candidates..their voices are pleasant not that wynnning, squeling bloomdoe fake voice nonsense bs

  • Nyr683

    i know people who have just arrived in nyc for several months only…funny thing, they tell me when they see bloomdoe on tv or any media outlet they change the outlet and their response to me was that they say he is lying, he is a fake,,,these are people just judging him from body language, voice, etc…AND THEY SAY HE IS PHONY…

  • Roma Giudetti

    God, another silly study by this silly organization.  Some of the comments are just mean.  DonthateTFA – here’s a news flash – one day you’ll be old.  I hope you get treated with more respect than you have for other people who have worked hard on behalf of poor and very troubled kids.  Unfortunately, a teacher is only as good as the students sitting before her.  When I worked in the Bronx, the kids were difficult but I grew to love them.  I was a mother, a social worker, a psychologist but I did very little teaching.  I don’t know how to change this situation, but I know it will take much more than just a “highly effective” teacher.  Everyone wants the same thing — to improve the lives of kids.  That’s why we ALL became teachers.  Let’s not let a nonprofit with a completely different agenda, pit young and old, veteran and new, against each other.

  • http://pissedoffteeacher.blogspot.com pissedoffteacher

    Put the same highly rated teachers in these low performing schools and I will bet dollars to donuts they won’t be so highly rated.  I’ve taught both places.  It is easy to get good scores when you teach good students.  Teaching the other ones takes a special talent that many don’t have.  Kudos to teachers in these low performing schools who help students every day, and do so much more than any number on a piece of paper could ever show.

  • common sense

    Did you ever think that the system gives low ratings “Because” you are dealing with challenging students? In other words you are destined to be rated low as a teacher if you dare to work with low functioning or special ed students. Look at ALL the schools that are specifically designed to take in over age, failing or low credit, emotionally challenged etc  students and in case after case they are penalized , v ilified , threatened with closure or closed(firing 1/2 the staff)-al lfor being a safe harbor for at risk students. Having yourself or your school constantly attacked by the DOE, Post or Daily News does little to promote education or attract qualified staff.

  • Nyr683

    ever notice this old  cruddy mayor does not wear glasses?? how can you be 70 years plus and ready to kick the  bucket and not be wearing glasses???can it be contacts he is wearing…??

  • I noticed that…

    I teach to students in a low performing HS.  One year I had a class of level 2 and 3 students, but mostly level 2.   The parents were involved in their child’s education.  I had the highest passing regents rate – Geometry 92%.  The following year the same types of students; however, no parent involvement.  It was a challenge, and I do have good classroom management skills.  However, the parent involvement was severely lacking and the passing regents rate was low. 

    Before we can have StudentsFirst, teachers need ParentsFirst, too. 

  • Gsauris

    students first ny listen to me. you people will be squished by the teachers union and you will become irrelevent in nyc…remember, nyc was a great place before bloomdoe and you terds came here and we will thrive when you leave…and dont tell me your stayiing here, eventually you all will give up

  • Mike

     I suspect that if the numbers were reversed, their conclusion would be the same.  Geoff, could you spare me from reading the report?  How would instituting a new evaluation system fix this imbalance?  Explain the logic, please.  I’ve had a very long week and can’t bear to read the document. 

  • TFBronx

    Been teaching in the Bx for almost 20 years now, and there are plenty of people to blame for the poor performances: parents, administrators, communities, students, and yes, teachers. While it’s true some teachers are unfairly targeted by administrations, it takes a lot of incompetence most of the time to earn a U rating. Yes, many of those teachers may not have gotten the proper guidance or mentoring, but if you are completely unable to manage a group of kids, and you are not improving at a quick enough rate over the course of a school year or two, then you need to reconsider your career choice in the field of education. Everyone has a tough time initially, but there has to be some determination, self-assessment and adaptation in the newer teacher. If they lack those qualities, and are only in it either for the resume-padding (if teaching is only a stepping stone for them) or for the benefits/job security (if they are looking to stay in the field as a career), then they are doing the entire school community a disservice; from the students who are not getting a proper education to the other teachers, who may actually be giving their best effort but are portrayed negatively due to their colleagues’ incompetence. It’s tiring to hear 2nd year teachers blaming students and parents for their own failings as educators. Get that classroom management down first, then maybe you’ll have a better chance of actually teaching your students and getting a decent rating.

  • district 13 dad

    Ordinary parent here.  I wouldn’t argue with the proposition that we should be putting our best teachers in the areas where the children are faced with the most challenges.  And I think the “education activists,” if that’s what we’re calling the folks pushing back against the StudentsFirst juggernaut, have put forth in other contexts the logical proposition that it is, indeed, hard to attract and retain the highest quality teachers in the highest needs schools.  So, on one level, if we are to take one point of this report to be that we need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to get the best teachers in these areas, then it’s pretty noncontroversial.

    But on another level, the report, its conclusions, and the coverage of it are pretty sloppy and patently driven by ideology.  Obviously, there are very clear issues with the statistics and how they are slicing the data that others already have pointed out.  Then there is the fact that they are proposing to solve the issue with more choice when the worst “concentration” (as they define it) is in middle and high schools where the whole scheme IS ALREADY choice.  Couldn’t we just as easily look at the better results (again, their definition) in elementary schools and find that it’s the result of the strong connections forged between zoned schools and their communities?    

    And about these “Top 10 Schools,” – many of them are located in my district or nearby, so I took a closer look.  In 2011, which was the source year for their data, a high number of these schools were *already* in clear administrative distress, which underscores many of the problems already pointed out in terms of chicken and egg, leadership problems, “must get worse before it gets better” issues, etc. Satellite West: new principal with leadership and loyalty issues; MS 571: a closing school; Kappa VII: on the closing list two years in a row; Multicultural High: Principal removed pending trial; PS 150: recent charter school co-locations and truncated grades; Global Citizenship: mass layoffs and teacher turnover in light of an unpopular administrative change.    

    I am not saying these schools didn’t have disproportionate numbers of U-rated teachers or that U-ratings don’t matter.  Clearly they do – my point is just that this report is in no way sophisticated enough to really show the reasons for the quality differentials (assuming they exists), or that a new evaluation system and more school choice is going to help.  And also that the very policies that StudentsFirst promotes in other venues, e.g., school closures and “unfettered leadership,” may also be significant problems, especially in low-income areas, that are not addressed here in any significant way.

  • Unfairly blaming the teachers

    Maybe it’s different in the Bronx, but every year in Brooklyn, in the Brooklyn branch of the Union’s offices, on the first day that teachers given “U” ratings (for the year) can come in to file a challenge to that “U,” the office is flooded with veteran teachers who have had documented success in the DOE system, who are suddenly being found “Unsatisfactory”.

    This coincides with the rise in principals and vice principals being given jobs in the Brooklyn schools, who have little or no teaching experience.  These unqualified principals (yes, I said unqualified!) are then rating teachers with proven track records and years of success.  PS — these veteran successful teachers are:
    1) on the higher end of the pay scale (thus the incentive to drive them out and replace them with an untenured, lower-paid newby, since principals now control their school’s budgets, including the salary budget), and
    2) perhaps these veteran teachers seem a bit intimidating (by fact, not behavior!) to a neophyte principal or vice principal who knows, deep down, that they are not really qualified to evaluate an experienced teacher, who has more teaching strategies up their sleeves than the pablum/jargon/emperors-new-clothes stuff  taught in theory at the “Leadership Academy”.

    But maybe it’s different in the Bronx. 

  • Mid-century

    This is a very old issue and not a new story. The older I get, the more I come across the same old stories. Everything runs in cycles. Anyway, years ago this issue was used by The Mayor in his effort to do away with the UFT transfer list. If some of us remember, we could ask for a transfer to another school. The teacher was awarded the transfer based on seniority. The Mayor wanted this seniority transfer plan eliminated because the “data” revealed that the most experienced teachers were able to get assigned to better schools, in better neighborhoods leaving the least experienced teachers in the poor performing schools. Hence, the UFT transfer plan based on seniority  was eliminated. Now, here we go again.
    The older I get the more I hear how changing one policy or practice over another will lead to great improvements. In the end it is the same ideas being expressed only it is given a new name.

  • PublicSchoolsFirst

    Public schools need more funding to hire more effective, veteran teachers.  Too often principals hire new or inexperienced teachers to save a few bucks on the budget.  The problem is compounded by the deluge of inexperienced admin.  Make teacher’s wages competitive and provide them with the supports needed and you’ll attract quality educators.  We need to discuss the issue of NYC’s poor retention rates.  Some of the best are fleeing the city for better pay/support elsewhere.  

    Placing an increased emphasis on ratings (especially tying ratings to student performance) will exacerbate the problem.  Why would an experienced teacher place their job on the line by working with low-performing students when they could just go elsewhere where the students are bound to perform well?  Whereas the inexperienced or poorly qualified will have little choice but to take the leftover positions- in poorer, lower-performing neighborhoods.

  • PublicSchoolsFirst

    Excellent analysis of a complex issue.

  • PublicSchoolsFirst

    I think this is a gross oversimplification of a complex issue.  Poverty breeds the conditions which make education so difficult for disadvantaged youth.  Too often, over-populated, under-funded schools create a space where education is near impossible.  Additionally, many students have needs that our schools just aren’t equipped to address. So yes, when kids are treated like a number and not as a human being- they tend to rebel and focus more on socializing than learning.  But take those same kids, place in them in a school with smaller class sizes and increased support and miraculously “bad” kids become scholars.  The problem is an economic one.  Let’s not sit around and place sole blame on the students.  Or the teachers for that matter.  We need to build a society which truly values public education. Increased funding and rethinking the ways our schools are structured would be a start. 

  • PublicSchoolsFirst

    More experience=more pay.  Principals have a set budget- hiring a more senior teacher eats more of the school’s budget.  Refusing to hire or even getting rid of veteran teachers means freeing up more funds…

    I don’t think the City is pressuring principals to do this.  I just think it’s a “natural” instinct as budgets are being slashed left and right.  And with programs like Teach for America or even NYC Teaching Fellows, there’s a never-ending supply of cheap labor…  unfortunately though, you get what you pay for.  I’m not knocking fresh teachers- but any seasoned educator knows that your first 2 or 3 years are usually your most ineffective.

  • PublicSchoolsFirst

    No need to get so defensive.  

    Stats show TFA-ers have fairly high turnover rates- most leave after just a few years.  Stats also show that the more effective teachers tend to be ones with more experience.  I was a product of the NYC Teaching Fellows- not the same organization- but similar in model.  These programs target younger folks (less so with NYCTF), who do not necessarily plan to stay in the profession.  This ensures the system will have a continuous supply of cheap labor…  unfortunately though, you get what you pay for.  I’m not knocking fresh teachers- but any seasoned educator knows that your first 2 or 3 years are usually your most ineffective.  Kudos to you if you are one of the few TFA fellows to stay on and become a career educator.  But it’s a sad fact, the system is a bit flawed.  And no need to knock those of us who have been passionately engaged in education for years.  In my own experience, it’s the teachers with heart and enthusiasm that stick around, the ones in it for the paycheck usually high tail it out of there (of course there are always some exceptions).  And personally, I’ve felt my work on the ground has been far more illuminating than any article I’ve ever read…

  • PublicSchoolsFirst

    In response to DontHateTFA:
    “Just got my tenure after 5 years.  And I’m not even TFA.  I’m a teaching fellow.  But I love hearing you dinosaurs complain about how bad it is making 20k more than the rest of us with the union making it near impossible to fire you.  Must be tough…”
    Wait until you’re 10 years in and no one wants to hire you because you make too much.  Watch how much you’ll love the TFA/NYCTF programs then…
    And while you are busy complaining about your compatriots, our schools are in dire straits.  I hope you have as much passion for actual teaching as you do for complaining.  We can’t afford to have these meaningless spats while our students are drowning…  Quit being self-centered and divisive.  

  • PublicSchoolsFirst

    Best way to ensure that generations of poor folks continue to remain dependent on public programs?  Deny them quality education.

  • PublicSchoolsFirst

    Best way to ensure that generations of poor folks continue to remain dependent on public programs?  Deny them quality education.

  • wise owl

    I am concerned about the “new evaluation” having a clause in it stating that teachers can be transferred against their will. This will not benefit anybody. Teachers will resent this and it will be a trickle down effect on the kids. This is what “merit” pay should be used for ANY teacher regardless of rating that’s willing to transfer to a low-performing school should be paid extra to do it. It is ” combat duty” and we all know it.

  • wise owl

     Yes agreed, Brooklyn schools has a very high amount of U ratings but not necessarily new principals that are doing it. There is a secret quota that they have to make plus a bonus that they get.

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