School rules don't apply

ALBANY — Albany's charter schools are among a handful of schools in New York that do not have to institute a new teacher evaluation system. 

The charters are not required to sign on to the new system developed as part of the state's application for the Obama administration's Race to the Top program, a competitive grant program. Albany's charter schools rejected the federal money because it required so many new mandates. Charter schools have more freedom from state regulations than district schools. 

Charters already have their own version of a teacher evaluation system, and is it is generally more stringent than the state's, said Chris Bender, executive director of the Brighter Choice Foundation, which supports all of Albany's 11 charter schools.

"Our schools are already doing them," he said. "We already have a process we feel is working."

The teacher evaluation system is at the center of one of the most bitter fights in public education. It requires that student scores on state standardized tests count for 20 percent of an educator's performance and initially had the support of the teachers union. Teachers are rated highly effective, effective, developing or ineffective. 

A state Education Department spokesman confirmed that schools did not have to institute the new evaluation system if they did not accept Race to the Top funds. 

In June, the New York State United Teachers filed a lawsuit against the state over a last-minute change to the law that would have allowed student test scores to count for 40 percent of a teacher's review. Meanwhile, hundreds of principals across the state have signed an online protest against the evaluation system for a variety of reasons. 

Proponents argued that the new system is long overdue because virtually all teacher evaluations had been positive, which is one of the reasons it is extremely difficult to fire a tenured teacher in New York. Many charter schools, whose teachers are often not unionized, use student test scores to evaluate their educators. A few charters have accepted Race to the Top funds and must implement the state's evaluation system. 

Though the system varies among the charters, all use student test scores and they count for far more than 20 percent of a teacher's performance review, Bender said. 

Albany's charter schools use student tests throughout the year, some as often as once a week, to determine how students are learning, he said. He cited the example of a charter teacher in Albany giving a lesson the War of 1812 and knowing the next day what information students retained. Bender said that information can also be used to hold teachers accountable if students are not learning in their classes. 

Source: Times Union