GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

On the first day back at P.S. 167 after February break, Bonnie Freeman said she’d heard about the ratings her 4th grade son’s teachers received last week. She hadn’t checked them out yet, but said when she did, she planned to take them with a grain of salt.

“I’m definitely going to take a look at it, but I heard on the news that it’s unfair,” Freeman said.

Freeman was referring to the wide margin of error that exists for many of the individual teacher rating scores. That caveat, among others, has prompted education department officials to insist to news organizations that readers should understand that the ratings aren’t meant to be taken at their face value.

Freeman’s reservations mirrored similar reactions from parents this morning outside of P.S. 167, a school in Crown Heights where none of the teachers ranked “above average” or higher on their math ratings. All of the parents I spoke to said they either weren’t aware of the ratings or were vaguely aware of them through news reports over the weekend.

None of the parents said they’d looked up P.S. 167′s teacher scores, but all said that they’d be interested in seeing them. (more…)