Happy New Year! The first half of the first month of 2013 is not even finished and already the momentum — and opposition — around education reform is building. To wit:

STATE POLICY MATTERS. Kudos to StudentsFirst for their new report card, which offers some different perspective on the issues facing policymakers and parents. If Ed Reform is a College Student, this is akin to yet another professor weighing in on his competency in particular areas. But it’s the cumulative GPA that really matters in the end. CER comments today.

UNION POWER?? It’s like Randi Weingarten was suddenly Captain Renault in Casablanca: “I’m shocked, shocked to find gambling going on here!” Her line to Mayor Bloomberg’s characterization of the union being as powerful as the NRA might as well have been: “I’m shocked, shocked that anyone thinks we have as much power as the NRA!” The union was offended and tied the remark to the recent tragedies in Newton. For shame! Whether one likes it or not, the NRA is a powerful political lobby for a cause and members, and that’s what “Hizoner” was saying when the union decided to once again stand in the way of a new teacher evaluation law from being implemented. That law got the union and the Governor of NY and Bloomberg great press TWO YEARS AGO and is STILL NOT IMPLEMENTED, and is one of those laws that US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan attributes to Race to the Top pressure. Ah, but as we predicted, there is more to getting policy changed than getting a law passed, and like so many places, the initial oohhs and aahhs that surround the union becoming progressive turns out to be all about the talk, not the walk. Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson said :”As the mayor has said before, the union is a special-interest group focused on advancing its agenda, whether it’s in the public interest or not. Their refusal to agree to a fair evaluation deal is just the latest example of this.” Ya think?

PROMISES PROMISES. Does anyone else find it odd that Sec. Duncan won’t approve California’s waiver request because it fails to promise the state will adopt a teacher evaluation component tied to test scores, while states that have been approved – or given federal monies on the condition of doing so, like NY – have yet to have more than some smoke and mirror proposals that use words like “evaluation” and “student growth” but in reality, leaves it all up to the unions to approve? At least Gov Brown isn’t gaming the system by simply promising to do something that won’t result in performance pay anyway!

OUT WITH THE OLD. The above piece on New York is an example of why real reformers not only don’t eat quiche, but they fight to keep authentic, substantive education reform in play. Oh sure, it’s much more popular to say we compromised and everyone got a win, but that doesn’t happen when kids continue to be mis-educated. Here’s what we had to say about this in the Huffington Post.

A GOV WHO GETS IT. A governor resolved to fight for reform, no holes barred; that’s Maine’s Paul LePage, a tough talking leader who was willing to take a rolled back charter law to get the reform started but got no reward from oppositional board members and the Blob, who have continued to throw obstacles in the way of new proposals. But rather than back down, the Maine Gov not only announced he’d be moving to lift the 10 in 10 years cap, but that the two new charters opening would not see their budgets reduced in their opening year. Some see that as wrong, since all districts are experiencing cuts, but then the districts actually get 30% more in costs to begin with, plus facilities support, so really, it’s still not equity, for charters, but it’s a start. The state’s charter commission is meeting today to consider additional charter applications, plus a virtual school proposal they tabled out of some kind of fear of new innovations. Let’s hope they’ve come around, and Gov, while you’re at it, you might consider real multiple authorizers not tied to the state. The commission model is not effective.

HITE’S HYPE. A big announcement, bold words, lengthy blueprint. That’s the talk in Philly where Superintendent Bill Hite is trying his best to turn around a bankrupt, failed school system. Closing failing schools is part of it, creating his own blended learning model, more accountability — these are all good things to be sure, but there’s no mention of consequences for adults who don’t reform or real expansion of school choice. See for yourself.

GEORGIA IS JUST PEACHY. According to a new report released by the state education department, fewer than 1% of teachers in the state (including typically low performers like DeKalb County) are unsatisfactory. In another Race to the Top state which promised major improvements in exchange for money, reformers may want to pause to consider whether the infusion is being used as a game changer, or simply funding the system.

PRE-K-3. AppleTree is one of those great charter schools that Washington DC leaders talked about in their Washington Post opinion piece last week, which is why anyone in town on Monday, January 14th should consider learning what AppleTree knows about educating the very young. For more info on the event click here.

LOTS MORE NEWS….Albeit without the commentary, available here every day.

Two issues being cited as primary stumbling blocks to a Chicago teachers contract are a recall policy for teachers and a teacher evaluation system. Both affect job security for teachers and are part of larger efforts to overhaul schools in the city and nationally.

TEACHER RECALL POLICY

The Chicago Teachers Union is pushing hard for a procedure to recall teachers who have been laid off because of school closings, consolidations and turnarounds. The issue is of critical importance, the union has said, because of rumors that the district plans to close as many as 100 schools in coming years.

Earlier this year, CPS and the union struck a deal over the longer school day that temporarily allowed for such a recall. In exchange for the union agreeing to an extra 30 minutes in high schools and 75 minutes in elementary schools, CPS agreed to rehire nearly 500 teachers in noncore subjects from a pool of teachers who had been laid off.

The district, however, has resisted making such a recall policy the permanent method for filling vacancies in Chicago schools.

“Teachers in this city agreed to a longer day … and what our union got in return for that was a promise there would be a recall procedure for those teachers who are going to be hired,” said Jesse Sharkey, vice president of CTU. “Now we see that offer is being taken away from the table, and there is no sign of respect there. That’s important for our members.”

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has framed the issue as one of accountability, saying he doesn’t want to place the district’s hiring control in the hands of the union through such a recall process.

“I don’t believe I should pick ‘em. I don’t believe CPS should pick ‘em. I don’t believe the CTU leadership should pick ‘em,” Emanuel said Monday of hiring teachers. “If we’re going to hold our local principals in the school accountable for getting the results we need, they need to pick the best qualified.”

In the district’s latest proposal, CPS teachers whose schools are closed would be eligible for vacancies at the school that takes in the transferred students. If there are no vacancies, the teachers would have three options: a three-month lump-sum severance, five months in a “reassigned teacher pool” or a spot in a “quality teacher force pool,” which would entitle those teachers to an interview and an explanation if they are not hired.

The CPS offer also provides options for teachers displaced for other reasons, including turnarounds or phaseouts.

Jeanne Allen, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Education Reform, said recall policies do not encourage improvement or change within school districts but rather a status quo that has never led to improvement in educating children.

But the teachers union has countered that its members deserve as much job security as possible, especially with school closings becoming increasingly common.

“In Chicago, there are many good teachers who work in some of the toughest schools in the city, who saw their schools close through no fault of their own,” Sharkey said.

TEACHER RATINGS

Teacher contract negotiations often come down to money and benefits, so parents might be wondering how employee evaluations became a stumbling block in the Chicago Public Schools teacher strike.

The wrangling has to do with a new teacher rating system pushed by the Obama administration, which has sparked new laws and controversy in Illinois and around the country.

The new evaluations judge teachers in part on how their students perform, with a focus on academic gains. Teachers say that isn’t fair for a lot of reasons and that bad ratings resulting from the new system could threaten teachers’ livelihoods.

CTU President Karen Lewis estimates that almost 6,000 teachers could be discharged in the coming years — nearly 30 percent of union membership. “That is unacceptable and leads to instability for our students,” she said.

But supporters of the new system — created under a 2010 Illinois law — say it’s good for students and a way to ensure that the best teachers are in America’s schools.

“I think there is unbelievably strong momentum not only locally but nationally that the time has come to have more substantive evaluations,” said Robin Steans, executive director of the policy group Advance Illinois, which has been instrumental in pushing education reforms.

Steans said a great deal of effort went into negotiating the 2010 law and that the CTU was at the table — though not Lewis, because she wasn’t union president at the time.

The law required CPS to jump-start the new evaluation system this fall in at least 300 schools, though most suburban school districts were not required to put the program in place until 2016-17.

During the first two years of the new system, at least 25 percent of a teacher’s evaluation must stem from how students perform on various assessments and how much they grow in knowledge and skills during the school year. From the third year on, the figure would be at least 30 percent.

CPS had planned to increase the figure to 40 percent in the coming years, but that could change in negotiations with the union, as could other parts of the new evaluation system.

The union wants to alter the scores that determine a teacher’s rating and the timing of tests used to measure student academic gains, among other changes. CPS officials say they’re open to working with the union and making adjustments as needed.

The new system also has been a point of contention between Illinois and the federal government, which wants Illinois to speed up use of the new evaluations. Illinois has refused, creating a standoff that has affected state education reforms.

At a downtown rally Monday, Rick Sawicki, a seventh- grade teacher at Evergreen Middle School, said it’s unfair to tie a teacher’s evaluation to student performance. He compared it to a coach not being able to pick the members of his team but still being evaluated on how they do on the field.

“There are a lot of factors that go into a child’s education that is not reflected in test scores,” he said. “Children are more to me than their test scores.”

Adding teeth to Michigan’s law preventing teachers from striking won’t be a topic in state House Education Committee meetings despite the walkout by 30,000 Chicago educators, the committee’s chairwoman said.

State Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons, R-Ada, said there is a bill before her committee that would allow the state to suspend certification for teachers who strike.

But Lyons said there are more issues before the committee that she wants to address first, including making sure veterans have more educational opportunities.

“It’s so heartbreaking to see children being hurt because adults cannot find solutions,” she said of the Chicago strike.

She said the Education Committee last year conducted hearings on the bill, sponsored by state Rep. Bill Rogers, R-Brighton. She has now immediate plans to call for a vote.

Lyons said she doesn’t think Michigan teachers will follow the lead of the Chicago teachers, who walked off the job on Monday in part because of objections to a plan to use student test scores in evaluations.

“Michigan teachers are better than that,” she said.

A group of 14 Michigan school districts are piloting four programs that would look at ways to link student achievement to teacher evaluations.

Michigan teachers strikes have been illegal since 1994, though there have been three strikes — two in Detroit and one in Wayne-Westland.

Michigan’s Public Act 112 stipulates striking teachers be fined one day’s pay for each day they refuse to work. But a district must report a strike to the Michigan Employee Relations Commission, which has up to 60 days to verify such an action was taken. The commission must then conduct individual hearings for each employee before approving fines or employee dismissals.

HB 4466, which has been on the House floor for more than a year, would allow districts to consolidate the hearings and establishes $250-a-day fine.

Chicago union leaders said the use of tests “is no way to measure the effectiveness of an educator.”

“Further there are too many factors beyond our control which impact how well some students perform on standardized tests such as poverty, exposure to violence, homelessness, hunger and other social issues beyond our control,” the union said in a release.

The strike brought swift reaction from advocacy groups, union leaders and politicians. Here is a sampling of the comments.

Amy Wilkins, vice president of The Education Trust:

“Overall, the Chicago teachers’ strike is deeply upsetting. But it is especially tragic for the low-income students who don’t have a moment of academic time to waste. In announcing the strike, Karen Lewis, the head of the Chicago Teachers’ Union, argued that children living in poverty or other difficult circumstances cannot be expected to perform well. But reams of evidence and a growing number of high-performing, high-poverty public schools tell us that is just not true. When children—including poor children—are taught to high levels by strong, well-supported teachers, children achieve at high levels. There’s no denying that poverty does matter. But what educators do in the face of poverty matters a lot. And when educators give in to myths of low academic potential for poor students, they not only condemn those students to limited futures but abdicate the enormous power that they have to change their life trajectories. For too long, too many Americans have accepted the myth that poor performance in schools is just a natural byproduct of impoverished neighborhoods. That Lewis would perpetuate that myth strongly suggests that she fails to take seriously the high price the city’s most vulnerable students are paying during this strike—or the costs they will pay for an agreement that fails to create better learning opportunities for them.”

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten:

“For the first time in 25 years, the members of the Chicago Teachers Union are on strike. No one wants to strike, and no one strikes without cause. In this instance, it comes on the heels of numerous steps that left CTU members feeling disrespected, not the least of which was the district’s unilateral decision to strip teachers and paraprofessionals of an agreed-upon 4 percent raise. The strike comes only after long and intense negotiations failed to lead to an agreement that would give CTU members the tools they need to help all their students succeed.

“The American Federation of Teachers and our members across the country stand firmly with the CTU, and we will support its members in their efforts to secure a fair contract that will enable them to give their students the best opportunities.”

The Center for Education Reform:

“The teacher’s union leaders have, for the last few years, worked hard to correct the impression that their focus is on job protection, and that they, too, like the rest of the nation, are frustrated with the slow pace of school improvement. The alleged willingness of the unions to engage in conversations about teacher quality and to call for an end to failing schools has all been interpreted as a sign that they have turned the corner. Some of us have remained unconvinced, recognizing that many often confuse action with rhetoric. The Chicago teacher’s strike of 2012 settles the issue once and for all. Parents and students are left without the education their taxes support. Taxpayers in general are beholden to union demands that are focused on rights and protections, not on kids. Chicago remains among the worst performing school districts in the nation, yet instead of embracing the mayor’s rational, modest proposals to begin instituting limited performance evaluations, union leaders begin acting more like the Chicago thugs of old than the leaders they want to be considered today.”

White House spokesman Jake Carney said President Obama is aware of the strike, but has not offered a reaction. During his Monday press briefing, Carney said:

“I can tell you that as a — more broadly, that our principal concern is for the students, and his principal concern is for the students and families who are affected by the situation. And we hope that both sides are able to come together to settle this quickly and in the best interest of Chicago’s students. But beyond that, I haven’t got a specific reaction from the President.”

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney:

“I am disappointed by the decision of the Chicago Teachers Union to turn its back on not only a city negotiating in good faith but also the hundreds of thousands of children relying on the city’s public schools to provide them a safe place to receive a strong education. Teachers unions have too often made plain that their interests conflict with those of our children, and today we are seeing one of the clearest examples yet. President Obama has chosen his side in this fight, sending his vice president last year to assure the nation’s largest teachers union that ‘you should have no doubt about my affection for you and the president’s commitment to you.’ I choose to side with the parents and students depending on public schools to give them the skills to succeed, and my plan for education reform will do exactly that.”

The highest-rated state was Indiana, with Louisiana taking second and Florida taking third. Indiana and Louisiana falling into the top two comes as no surprise, since both of these states have garnered wide attention and media coverage regarding major reform packages passed within the last two years. Indiana even won the title of “Reformiest State” in the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s 2011 Reform Idol competition.

All of the states evaluated in the analysis are listed below from highest to lowest rating. Be sure to check out the full report for details on ratings and specifics on each state.

WISCONSIN RE-CALL. Labor’s credibility is on the line today as voters in Wisconsin go to the ballot box for the gubernatorial recall election. Governor Walker’s all-out assault on collective bargaining sparked this most expensive election in the state’s history. Although most political pundits are giving the edge to Walker, voter turnout is key to the outcome. But, others suggest that if labor, including teacher unions, take a loss, it may not be as unexpected as thought…

LOVE’S LOST ON LABOR. Public opinion of teacher unions, even among teachers themselves, is on the wane. That’s according to a survey released by Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance and the journal Education Next. Between 2009-2011, the annual poll found little movement, with about 40% of respondents neutral in their views of teacher unions. But, this latest poll finds unions losing ground. Among teachers surveyed, the drop is even more dramatic. In 2011, 58% of teachers had a positive view of unions, dropping to 43% in 2012. Teachers holding a negative view of unions nearly doubled during the same time period, from 17% to 32%, all of which could explain the NEA’s reported loss of 200,000 members by 2014. The researchers responsibly say the decrease in teacher support could be due to an opinion that unions are not doing their job in Legislatures nationwide, given the hard hits they have taken on benefits, evaluations, etc. However, they also note that dwindling teacher support could emanate from a realization that unions are putting up roadblocks to meaningful reform.

UNION LIP SERVICE. Given the results of this poll and reform trends nationwide, Washington Post columnist Jay Mathew’s characterization of union “tolerance” and support for charters and evaluations is befuddling at best. In a recent column on Obama and Romney’s ed reform similarities, Mathews waxes on about their big difference – teacher unions. Edspresso takes on Mathews’ assertion that teacher unions alleged toleration of charters and teacher evaluations shows their seriousness about reform. Not really. Union rhetoric that spouts support for teacher evaluations and charter schools should not be confused with a dedicated drive to install evaluations with teeth and charters designed to make swift hiring/firing decisions and other changes to benefit students. And, Mathews should know that. He just needs to take a peek inside the on-average 153-page collective bargaining agreements, as did researchers Fred Hess (AEI) and Martin West (Brookings) in a Harvard report, A Better Bargain: Overhauling Teacher Collective Bargaining for the 21st Century, that calls for a major overhaul of collective bargaining. They write that today’s collective bargaining agreements were “designed for a bygone era” and “forestall changes to educational practices and compensation systems that are essential to enhancing teaching and learning.”

CHANGING FOCUS. Trending nationwide is an emphasis on teacher evaluations that include student testing, despite union outrage. Coupled with tenure reform, the goal is to keep top teachers in the classroom and hurry out the door to another profession those who fail to boost student achievement. In a profile of one thorny teacher dismissal case, Washington Post reporter Emma Brown gets it right. Because Fairfax County, Virginia, does not yet have an evaluation system that includes student testing, they rank their teachers based only on a list of county-approved techniques (use of technology, small group instruction). In this case, the teacher’s students’ scores were on par with others in her school, but allegedly she didn’t use all of the practices required by the district. Brown concludes correctly that “the focus is on how teachers teach, not whether students learn.” Seems as if Fairfax County needs to go back to the drawing board to remember why they are in existence.

NO GIANT STEP… but noteworthy still is the North Carolina Senate vote to pass legislation designed to improve education outcomes for students. The bill eliminates tenure, calling for all teachers to sign annual contracts, instead. Other provisions include: permitting the dismissal of teachers or principals working in low-performing schools who receive two consecutively sub-par evaluations; granting local boards the authority to establish their own performance-pay systems, which includes working in low-income/high at-risk schools, although this does not guarantee a quality teacher. Take a look at the Hoosier State (Indiana) for a real giant step forward for reform.

BACKSLIDE. The charter proposal that is percolating in Pennsylvania under a reform label is one that, unfortunately, would “create more bureaucracy, hinder the innovation in public education…and set Pennsylvania’s reform efforts back.” Read more on this critical issue in our CER Alert.

This spring, students in the Charlotte region will test-drive a survey that could eventually give them a voice in their teachers’ job evaluations.

Once results are in, state officials will consider whether and how to incorporate a student survey into teacher and principal evaluations. Read More…

The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) has partnered with two school corporations — Randolph Central and Milan Community Schools — to explore ways to deliver on the new state-mandated teacher evaluations.

“The old system dictated that teacher pay was based on experience and degrees,” Randolph Central Superintendent Gregory Hinshaw said. “Under this new legislation, that will be restricted to no more than 33 percent of an increase.”

The majority will be based on performance. The idea behind the new system is to create a way for the highest performing teachers to be rewarded, Hinshaw said. Read More…

David Wright, a high school technology teacher in Middletown,Delaware (STODE1), has never taught reading or math. Even so, the state planned to judge his job performance partly on student test scores in those subjects.

That was until last month, when state officials said they would throw out a provision in a new system linking teacher performance to student achievement that assessed educators such as Wright on schoolwide performance in subjects they don’t teach.

“Judge me, fine, just let’s make sure it’s on things that I can control,” Wright, 34, and president of the local chapter of the state union, said in a phone interview. “In the rush to get it done as quickly as possible, they lost some of the logic.”

Delaware is in the vanguard of states developing new systems to evaluate teachers, according to Sandi Jacobs, vice president of theNational Council on Teacher Quality, a nonprofit research and policy group in Washington. Delaware’s struggle may foreshadow complications that New York and other states face as they follow suit. Along with questions about fairness, states are encountering delays because of the complexity of tracking data, conflicts with teachers unions and concern from researchers that the entire effort could be misguided.

President Barack Obama’s administration has made tying teacher evaluation to student performance a centerpiece of its education agenda. Changing evaluations was a requirement for winning grants in the Education Department’s $5 billion Race to the Top program, of which Delaware was an early recipient.

Changing the Metrics

The evaluations also figure prominently in a proposed $5 billion grant program, part of the administration’s fiscal 2013 budget, designed to revamp teacher pay and tenure plans.

States are developing data systems to show how much individual teachers contribute to student achievement. The aim: measuring pupils’ improvement during their time in class, taking into account their skills when they enter. Districts would then combine these measures with more subjective evaluations, such as observation by principals. It’s a shift from gauging teacher quality by the number of years on the job or advanced degrees.

Tying teacher evaluations to student test scores is vital to determine how educators enhance achievement, said Jeanne Allen, president of the Washington-based Center for Education Reform, which supports charter schools and diminished union power.

‘Hire and Fire’

“Until we get to the point that school leadership can hire and fire, and they themselves can be hired and fired based on the value they add to a child’s life, we’re not making progress on improving education,” Allen said by telephone. “Evaluation is the first step, and performance pay is the second.”

Student test scores are one of many components that schools should use to assess educators, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates wrote today in a New York Times op-ed calling the impending public release of ratings based on student test scores for more than 12,000 New York City teachers “a big mistake.” His charity, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has spent millions on programs aimed at evaluating teacher performance.

“Putting sophisticated personnel systems in place is going to take a serious commitment,” he wrote. “Those who believe we can do it on the cheap — by doing things like making individual teachers’ performance reports public — are underestimating the level of resources needed to spur real improvement.”

Sea Change

Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia require that objective measures of student achievement, such as student test scores, be included in the evaluation of teachers, according to an October report from the teacher-quality council.

“We’re seeing a real sea change,” Jacobs, the council’s vice president, said in a phone interview. “Two or three years ago, almost no place was using any objective evidence of student performance.”

Pam Nichols, director of communications at the Delaware State Education Association, the state’s only teachers union, with 12,000 members, said officials shouldn’t rush to implement evaluation systems.

“It’s not about getting it done,” Nichols said by telephone from Dover. “It’s about getting it done right, or it’s a waste of money and you’re not really seeing if a teacher is effectively doing what he or she was hired to do.”

Establishing Guidelines

State officials and hundreds of teachers in Delaware, the sixth least-populous state, are working to establish guidelines that will measure student performance on subjects that aren’t tested using the Delaware Comprehensive Assessment System, the standard state exam for grades 3 through 10. According to Race to the Top, they must have the guidelines in place by the start of the 2012-2013 school year, said Diane Donohue, special assistant for educator effectiveness at the state education department.

In contrast with states such as New York and New Jersey, where government and union representatives have sparred, collaboration between the two has been essential, Donohue said.

“It’s hard enough when you are collaborating, let alone if there’s no collaboration,” said Donohue, who was previously president of the union. “You have to have the perspective of all the stakeholders in order for it to work, and you definitely need the perspective of the educators.”

Under Fire

The wisdom of using improvement on student-achievement tests to assess teachers has come under fire from some academics. Too little is known about their accuracy as a teacher-evaluation tool, according to a 2009 report by the National Research Council, a unit of theNational Academy of Sciences.

The student-achievement tests weren’t designed for measuring teachers and may not be sensitive enough for the task, said Diane Rentner, interim director of the Center on Education Policy, a Washington-based research group. “I have a concern that the assessments aren’t quite there to do this on a completely fair basis,” she said in an interview.

No high-performing nation in the world evaluates teachers by student test scores, according toDiane Ravitch, an education historian and former assistant U.S. education secretary under President George H.W. Bush.

“This is madness,” Ravitch wrote Feb. 21 on the New York Review of Books website. “Will we ever break free of our national addiction to data? Will we ever stop to wonder if the data mean anything important? Will education survive school reform?”

New York Agreement

Last week, New York officials announced an agreement with the state’s largest teachers union to save $700 million in federal funding, after U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan warned it would have to return the money if its Race to the Top promise to implement evaluations went unfulfilled. Assessments in local districts will be based 60 percent on classroom observations by administrators, and peer and parent feedback. Forty percent will be split between students’ performance on state tests and locally developed ones.

The National Council on Teacher Quality gives grades to states based on their policies on recruiting, preparing and evaluating teachers. Florida ranks highest, with a ‘B’, because of the variety of its efforts to change teacher policies, such as those regarding tenure.

California got a ‘D-plus’, with the organization saying it hadn’t made progress in changing teacher policies since 2009, such as identifying effective instructors. The state is “encouraging the development of more effective educator evaluation systems,” according to a statement last month from the office of state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson. The department declined to comment further, said Pam Slater, a spokeswoman.

Nineteen states, including New York, received a ‘C.’ Montana – which had no state policy regarding teacher effectiveness — came in last, with an F. The state is working on an evaluation system now, said Allyson Hagen, a spokeswoman for the Office of Public Instruction.

To contact the reporters on this story: Esmé E. Deprez in New York atedeprez@bloomberg.net; John Hechinger in Boston at jhechinger@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: William Glasgall at wglasgall@bloomberg.net

An agreement between New York (STONY1) and its largest teachers union on evaluations makes the state part of a movement backed by President Barack Obama to hold educators responsible for student performance.

The deal announced yesterday by Governor Andrew Cuomo, a 54-year-old Democrat, may save New York $700 million in federal funding. It’s also an example of how the push to hold teachers accountable has been taken up by both sides of the negotiating table, said Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, a Washington-based group that supports charter schools and diminished union power.

“This is a big step in the right direction that puts New York up there in the top tier of states that have already begun down the road of codifying an evaluation system with some portion based on student test scores,” Allen said in a telephone interview yesterday. “It’s terrific that we have people from both parties finally recognizing that evaluation is an important component of creating student achievement.”

Last month, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan warned that New York would have to return $700 million if it didn’t fulfill its promise to Obama’s Race to the Top program to implement teacher evaluations. The president, a Democrat, has proposed $5 billion in incentives for states and school districts to tie teacher pay to performance as part of his $69.8 billion education-budget proposal.

Cuomo Threat
The deal between the Education Department and New York State United Teachers union was reached after Cuomo threatened to insert his own evaluation plan into the budget. The agreement puts into action a 2010 law and provides a framework for districts to negotiate with local unions.

In a related deal, New York City and its local teachers union, with Cuomo’s help, agreed to an appeals process for educators graded poorly in evaluations that will save the city at least $300 million in state funding, Cuomo said.

“This historic agreement about a statewide teacher evaluation system that is directly linked to student performance ends a two-year-long stalemate and will make New York the national model for education reform,” Larry Schwartz, secretary to the governor, said yesterday at a press conference in Albany.

Under the agreement between the state and United Teachers, which represents 600,000 people, 60 percent of an evaluation will be based on classroom observations by administrators, and peer and parent feedback. The remaining 40 percent will be split between students’ performance on state tests and locally developed exams.

‘Talking About Layoffs’
New York’s more than 700 districts have until Jan. 17 to use the framework to negotiate specifics with local unions or risk losing their share of a 4 percent increase in state funding, Cuomo said when he introduced his $132.5 billion budget last month. Lawmakers approved the extra spending in last year’s budget, bringing the total to $20.3 billion for fiscal 2013, or about $800 million more than the current year.

“If a school district doesn’t get the money, the school district is going to start talking about layoffs,” Cuomo said during a Feb. 14 Cabinet meeting in Albany. “That’s going to affect the union, and so I think that’s an incentive.”

The deal on evaluations is another victory for Cuomo. In his first year, he erased a $10 billion deficit, got New York’s two biggest government-worker unions to agree to pay freezes and furloughs, instituted a property-tax cap and pushed through a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in the third-most-populous state. In December, the Legislature passed a Cuomo-endorsed tax package that raised rates on joint filers earning $2 million or more, and cut them for the middle class.

“He’s the first Democratic governor in New York to challenge the unions and step up to the plate,” Allen said.

Not a Cure
Teacher evaluations aren’t a panacea, said Alan Sadovnik, co-director of the Newark Schools Research Collaborative in New Jersey, a joint project between Newark Public Schools and Rutgers University-Newark.

“I don’t think we should fool ourselves to think that value-added teacher-evaluation systems will weed out all the ineffective teachers or are a magic bullet to solving the achievement gap,” Sadovnik said in a telephone interview yesterday. “Unless we address conditions outside of schools, while also addressing conditions inside schools, teacher evaluations, while having some effect, will be limited.”

NYC Sticking Point
Among the rules that New York districts will negotiate is the implementation of an appeals process for fired teachers.

United Teachers President Richard Iannuzzi said such a system is best worked out locally.

“One size fitting all is a bad recipe for education,” Iannuzzi said yesterday on WCNY public radio in Albany.

The appeals process had been a sticking point between New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration and United Federation of Teachers, the local union.

The debate grew hostile and that’s “why they asked the governor to sit down and broker an agreement,” Schwartz said during the Feb. 14 meeting.

The Bloomberg administration and the UFT will now work out the remaining details for the city evaluation system, the mayor said at a press conference in New York yesterday.

“The system the governor will put into his budget amendment, which will become effective by the end of the year, will allow us to not only move forward with replacing the broken ’pass/fail’ system with something far more rigorous and far more comprehensible,” Bloomberg said. “It will also help us ensure that teachers who are rated ‘ineffective’ can be given the support they need to grow, or if that doesn’t work, to be moved out of the classroom.”

The mayor is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.