Roger Tilles, a Great Neck resident and member of the state Board of Regents, on Wednesday called for an overhaul of the state’s use of Common Core test scores to evaluate teachers and principals.
“The evaluations are used as a hammer over the head’s of teachers to teach a very narrow curriculum,” Tilles said. “It eliminates the things people want to go to school for like science, history, social studies, and foreign languages because of the emphasis on English and math.”
Tilles first criticized the use of the tests at a teacher’s conference at Earl L. Vandermeulen High School in Port Jefferson, in which about 400 teachers and administrators were in attendance, according to Newsday. He continued his criticism in an interview with Blank Slate Media on Thursday.
“The evaluation system is based now on a value-added state assessment that is flawed in what it’s supposed to be doing and can’t be used for diagnostic purposes for students,” Tilles said. “A different plan would call for teachers to be evaluated on multiple measures.”
Tilles, who has been a member of the Board of Regents since 2005, is currently in his third five-year term as regent for the Nassau and Suffolk counties.
The state Education Department currently uses a computer system that analyzes standardized test scores to determine a teacher’s “student growth score.”
The score is based on the improvements made by students over a year-long period.
The results of those tests are now used to account 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation after the state Legislature agreed to a proposal by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in exchange for his approval of increased state aid.
On Thursday, Cuomo called for a review of the state’s Common Core-based standards, tests, and curriculum in a news release. But there was no mention of reviewing the state’s teacher evaluation methods.
Efforts to reach Cuomo’s staff for comment on the possible inclusion of teacher evaluations in the Common Core curriculum review were unavailing.
Tilles said the current system forces teachers to teach a restricted curriculum that only emphasizes math and English.
The Education Department’s methods of evaluating teachers is now being challenged in Supreme Court by Sheri Lederman, a Great Neck teacher and resident of Jericho.
Lederman alleges in the lawsuit that the current evaluation model “actually punishes excellence in education through a statistical black box which no rational educator or fact finder could see as fair, accurate or reliable.”
Tilles, who said he knows and has spoken with Lederman and her husband Bruce, who is representing her in the lawsuit, said he believes the evaluation system will be changed.
“It has to be changed,” Tilles said. “The outcry and push back is so strong and legislators see that.”
Tilles said he and other opponents of the current evaluating system are trying to replace the current system with one that includes testing as well student portfolios.
“This plan calls for teachers to be evaluated on measures that include state testing, local testing, portfolios, and teacher developed testing, but not on a state value-added assessment,” Tilles said. “A value-added test should never be used to evaluate personnel.”
The evaluations need to inform schools on ways that they can improve their education systems, he said.
“Evaluations should inform teachers and administrators on better practices in education,” Tilles said. “Linked to the evaluation process needs to be a mandatory professional development review in regards to what the test is giving.”
A court ruling on the Lederman case against the state Education Department is expected within 60 days of the Aug. 12 arguments.
