A Teachable Moment

For those who believe Governor Cuomo’s bull about teacher unions dragging their heels at negotiating agreements on the new Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) legislation, follow this link to the latest in a seemingly endless series of guidance documents from the New York State Education Department. Can a procedure for the evaluation of teachers that takes 92 pages of opaque prose to explain possibly improve the education of a single child in our state? And what reason is there to believe that there won’t be other guidance documents forthcoming that will change what we think we understand about the rules today? As an administrator in my district quipped the other day, “We’re waiting for the guidance document on guidance documents.” Fortunes of money have and will be spent on this nonsense. Thousands and thousands of hours have been spent by teachers and administrators working on developing plans. Children will be increasingly subjected to more state tests, and not a single child will be helped by the process because it doesn’t address any of the problems faced by our public schools. It is we who should be providing guidance to the no-nothings in Albany. My suggestion? Leave now. The careers of the folks in Albany are bound to be ruined when these plans are fully implemented and the stupidity of this endeavor becomes broadly apparent.